St. Augustine Trip plan

Cafe 11
Sunset Grille
Zahanras
Harry's
Casa Maya
Mango Mangos
Deco
Caps
Alcapulco
Bistro de Leon
The tasting room




Starbucks-A1A & State Rd. 3

To hot for email.

The other day I was looking at a house to buy for my real estate company. On occasion I get to see the house before all the trash is removed by the foreclosing bank. This particular house had so much porn in it that I call it “The house of porn.”  Just about every room was scattered with the stuff.  I know what your thinking, why am I riffling through some else’s porn. Sadly, I have become desensitized to piles of porn in foreclosed houses.  I end up spending more time trying not to fall over it rather than discover the home owners’ preferences. Don’t get me wrong, I think in cases like this one, there are spiritual forces at work. Immediately, when I open the doors to these kinds of houses I sense it, creepy on so many different levels. 

I think that when the sheriff evicted these people they thought nothing of the years of porn they were leaving behind. I’d guess that it became so normal for these people to be immersed by this stuff that weren’t embarrassed by it any more. The sheer volume is embarrassing by any standard.

So what’s this got to do with God?

Don’t we do that in our spiritual lives? We go to church for years and seem to let the crud build up. Don’t we use trite Christian ideals to hold it all together when it’s all really falling apart? We try quick fixes. In our spiritual lives we like to have God served on a platter. We go from one spiritual high to the next. We miss what it’s really all about.

Someone else.

We have been talking about getting away from our selves during this VS Series. But what does it really mean to legitimately care for some one else more than we care for our selves? Why do we continue to hit our heads against the wall trying to get our own “needs” met when the reality is that by caring for other people we end up being liberated our selves?

After the fact I found out that the previous owner was a doctor. Last I checked doctors make some serious money yet this guy became so consumed with himself that he lost his house.

You might have heard it said “We all have something that we could lose it all over” but maybe the better question is what are we willing to give it all up for?

Prayer

A couple of Sundays ago I was moving hurriedly through the cantina and I noticed Thom Yencer leading his Set-up team in prayer. Totally unsolicited, I witnessed a team gather and pray for the kids who would soon be learning about Jesus, in part as a result of their work. Although I didn’t cry, (because I am a heartless manJ) I had to pause and thank God for our volunteers who get it.

 

Who’s driving your boat?

While on vacation, Carly and I rented a two-person kayak. We were heading to the shallow waters to manatee cove. I noticed being in the back the boat made me in control.  Carly sat upfront and did all the hard work and I just stuck my paddle in and turned us left and right.

Once we reached our destination, we were met by at least ten manatees. These manatees were happy if you know what I mean. It was cool for us because our small boat allowed us to hover over top of these fat beasts. I even grabbed one. Don’t tell the fish and wild life people. It was a pretty cool sight to see.

 

Here are a couple of things I noticed about our seating arrangement.

Front seat:

You’re the person moving the boat forward. When you sit in the front of the boat everything coming your way hits you first; every thing that happens to you is immediate. You’re the first to see life’s cool stuff and bad stuff. You lose a little bit of control.

 

Back seat:

Being in the back of the boat gives a broader perspective. The person in front trusts you. You make choices that affect direction and everyone else you have contact with.  Power comes with responsibility.

 

Here’s the thought. We all have things that steer us. As believers was try to allow God to be our guiding force.  But in reality we let other people, feelings, and self interest guide us.  Often we are so involved in the front our life’s boat that we can’t keep perspective. We become consumed with our current realities rather than where God wants to steer us. Ironically some times we strive to be all that we can be for God that we kill direction he might have started in us to run to another Godly direction.

 

Questions.

How can we take a step back and gain perspective?

How much of our life’s choices are thought about through the character of God.

How can we discern between God’s direction and our feelings masquerading as God’s voice.?

Why do we serve?

This morning I found myself stuck in a flood of water. Car stalled out, other motorists were passing me on every side. I wasn’t sure what to do. The closest exit had a steep incline, that I didn’t think I could handle by myself. I tried to crank the motor a few times to no avail.

I was trying to figure out how to get this car out of the road. Call AAA, push, just wait right there till it dries out. In the back of my head I was reminded of how I never stop to help any one in auto distress. I usually justify my unhelpful behavior with “I don’t know how to fix cars” or “ I’m going to be late”. I was not counting on any help from a fellow motorist because I am not a helper myself. I may be insensitive but at least I am a consistent insensitive jerk.

A man wrapped in a yellow rain coat is riding his bike down the sidewalk. He appeared like the type that would hold a sign in an intersection “Homeless-Vet God Bless”. The guy approaches my car and hollers through his salt and pepper bushy beard, “You want me to push you out of the road?” I took my shoes off and together we pushed my car up the steep incline to a dry spot in a parking lot. I shook his hand and thanked him and we went our separate ways.

While I was waiting for my engine to dry out I wondered a few things.

Why did this guy help? He was on a bike clearly going somewhere. Why would he help me when I surely wouldn’t help him? Was he already wet and figured might as well? Was he hoping that I would hook him up with some money?

After getting the car started I continued my journey through the flooded streets of South Tampa; cars flooded everywhere. In Hyde Park I passed a woman that almost had water in the doors. I thought I couldn’t push that car alone, she won’t help. She was in a business suit. In the back of my head the passage about the Good Samaritan played over and over. Here I am the church guy who was just helped and I passed others in need.

Here are my questions:

• What does it take to live a life of service? To be at the point where we respond to needs instead of reflect about needs.
• How do motives play into our decisions to respond to needs? What motives prevent us from responding when opportunity slaps us in the face?  Many people serve with wrong motives yet God blesses their efforts. How can we identify our motives and realign our heart with our actions?

 

The next day I was on my way to work and I noticed a nice Mercedes with a blown tire in the road. I didn’t want to be a dirt bag two days in a row so I turned around and offered to push her out of traffic.  

I am whole again

    This week my computer went into the service shop. She needed a little tune up.  The man took my computer put it in a box affixed my name to it and sent it behind the repair door. Some expert was replacing the logic board. It's his every day job so I'm sure he is thinking here we go again "another logic board". The computers he doctors back to life are just that, machines. They really begin to look the same after a while. I quickly began to realize that I watched a very important part of me go behind closed doors for repair. 

    This repair dude held in his hand my most of my work life, personal life and, social time. Twenty four hours passed and my anxiety went through the roof. I felt like a naked man on the city streets holding nothing but an Iphone. I was on a forced vacation because I couldn't really work. The phone rings at 8:20pm "your computer is ready for pick up." I thought "you mean life is ready to begin again". 8:57pm I enter the store, because waiting till 10:00am the next day was to much to take. Finally, in my hands again was my life. I walked out of the store with the laptop proudly held above my head.

    Tuns out a logic board is important and expensive. Because of my warrantee I got me a new one for free. But I began to think, does the guy who replaces computer boards, with his fancy screw drivers, know what importance his job has? Were not talking about Blart the mall cop here. We are talking about fixing a device that I spend hours working with every day. I spend more time with this than I do my wife or my kids.

    When you serve at Relevant you are affecting people in very real ways.  When people come to Relevant they are trusting us with very important things; time, mental attention, emotional openness, their kids, most of all access to their soul. The second greatest fulfillment I have experienced is watching people's lives changed because of your commitment.

Jamie Takes The Taser

Feasting at the table of faith.

I wanted to take a minute to highlight great news on one of our groups. The Wirth’s are doing the 30 Days to Understanding the Bible. A study most people would think is surface and for new believers.

            Paul tells me this week their group began hitting their stride. They assign homework for each of the topics of the week. Paul was amazed the amount of research their people brought for discussion. Pages and pages of info about there assigned topics. These people are spiritually all over the board. Some have been in church for years, some have just started looking at their faith. It seems like no matter where on the journey this group is they are really digging in.

            God has set before us a buffet of spiritual growth that we can’t even imagine. Often at a party no one wants to be the first in the buffet line for fear of looking like a pig.  Be ready because I can see the gathering of hungry people who cannot hold back any longer and they are beginning to rush the buffet.

            If you heard Paul’s message from last Sunday you can tell the spiritual temperature is rising. God has begun a new day for Relevant, mark it on your calendar. Thanks for being apart of the life change going on right now.

By the way Great Freaking Job.

 

A week ago I took an incredibly long car ride. Greg Vander Wel and I set out to scout for beach baptism pavilions. During the very long time in the car, I made mention to Greg how important his job is on Sunday morning. He and Darren invented the roll of walking first time guests up to the second floor. Along the way they chit chat with the guests about Relevant in attempts to make them feel comfortable. What started out as just an idea has turned into a critical part of our guest experience. We now have five people trained to do the same thing.

While discussing the roll and its success Greg stops me and says “ I’m glad it’s working because I really have to put my self out there and you never really know how people respond.” I must have looked dumbfounded because I thought he knew how important I felt the job was. I just had not reinforced the role’s importance along the way.

All to often we/I can get used to how well things work and forget to celebrate the wins. Sometimes we even forget why the systems are in place and what impact they have.

HERE IS THE SHOCKER……. Since January, over 141 first time guests have come through Relevant’s doors. Over 98% of the guests who took our online survey said they felt welcomed. Imagine if 141 people gave church a try and no one paid attention to them?

I have known Greg for many years. I knew him when I worked for him in real estate and before he returned to a church regularly. I remember over a year ago after lunch in Ybor we were standing at his car in the Italian Club lot, telling him that he needed to man up and take his faith serious. A few weeks later he began coming to Relevant. I have watched his faith grow by leaps and bounds. Although he does not feel like he has arrived, I can see his faith journey growing every week.

I have 4 more stories just like Greg’s of how God is working in your lives and through your lives.

Where Did Jamie Go?

Remember the questions I sent out from last week? Asking areas we are succeeding in and areas I need to improve on. (If you don’t remember I’ll send it again.) I received a great reply from the Begley’s. I wanted to highlight one of their reflections.

 

My question:

Premise Two: Leaders who do too much, prevent others from leading. The end result of poor delegation results in a cap of how effective the ministry can be. 

Question Two: In what areas do I need to step back and let others step up?

Begley response:

 I do appreciate that you’ve let the cantina team act fairly independently recently.  We’ve found a groove that seems to work for our team. 

 

On the surface it might seem like an ego stroke to me rather, I see it as a huge win for their set up team. I realized a few months ago that by me being down in the cantina I was getting in the way of others taking charge. I had to force myself to find something else to do. That was really hard. The great news is that this team flat knocks it out of the park. Last week they were done with set up at 9:03am. The fastest time ever.

A survey with all the wrong questions.

The recently returned to the YMCA after the new year. The place was clean and full of optimistic athletes. On the way out an employee asked me to fill out a survey about our YMCA.
The questions:
Did our staff greet you?
Did our staff use your name today?
Is our staff friendly?
Is the facility clean?
Other suggestions……

After answering the questions I commented, “ The racquetball courts could be swept more often.” During the summer, the courts are used by kids with seriously dirty shoes. Hand prints collect on the glass, what a fright. May times I thought that someone ought to take care of this.

As I went on with my day I remembered a conversation I had during the membership process. The intake person told me “YMCA’s depend on volunteers.” It’s part of the spiel. After a few days of working out, any thought of volunteering was gone. I’ve got lots of things; time is not one of them.

Back to the Survey, all the questions were associated with issues the staff control.
Inadvertently the priority of volunteerism has faded from the organization’s daily operations. Finally a thought occurred to me. What if I found a broom? What if I just cleaned the glass? Would I get in trouble if I just fixed the problem myself? Would these tasks be a help to some one other than me? Am I selfishly serving?

I think lots of times people hop from one church to another and they feel like the church staff are “the church”. I think many times people survey a church they attend and never ask the question, “What if I just fixed the broken toilet in the women’s room.” Often, people view their tithes like dues at a gym. Sadly, they find them selves looking for a new place that, “meets their needs.”

People who end up serving, do so for many reasons. Some serve to find friends, while others are thrilled to serve with no certain benefit. The reality is, if I only took a few minutes a week to make sure my court was cleaned, than the YMCA guys could do another more important task. Better yet, my ownership of the courts might spur others to do a small part them selves. Small tasks, even if selfishly done, still make a difference.

I am so proud that at Relevant our culture has not tuned into a staff does everything mentality. You guys are the ones who make every thing happen. Because of your ownership in the ministry here, you further embody your faith. Thanks for being fully engaged while you’re here.

Slow Sandwich

Following by example

Nuts & Bolts - Case Study : Retaining the Flock

Challenge: Retain churchgoers.
Solution: Mobile marketing, sending daily text messages.
Results: Of the 125 church members and attendees who participated, 100 percent have remained worshippers.

Taking a leap of faith, Relevant Church of Tampa, Fla. invested last year in database management software from Fellowship Technologies of Irving, Texas. In one of its first challenges for the software, Relevant created a mobile marketing retention drive.

"We had a series that we called TEXT," Administrative Pastor James Adair says. "It was a study of the Bible, a play on the word, obviously. What we wanted to do was to help our people get to interact more with scripture on a daily basis. So we tried to find an apparatus to communicate with them that was relevant, already ingrained in their daily life. So we said, ‘Well, what if we text message them Bible verses for the day?' You could always e-mail, but sometimes you get that later, when you're already at work." 

The church posed the challenge to its attendees one Sunday, and 125 opted in to read scripture every morning for 30 days. After pulling worshippers' cell phone numbers from the Fellowship One database-the Fellowship Tech software Relevant Church purchased to keep track of its growing flock-Relevant sent out the text messages. New congregants who weren't yet in the database filled out contact cards, which the church then added.

"Just because you have somebody come to your church for years, [sometimes] they don't actually grow in their faith, or they don't go anywhere with it; it's just like somebody coming into your restaurant and not buying any food," Adair says. "You want them to start growing. So by getting them into Fellowship One, we can track their progress. We can tell if they go to a small group. We can tell if they attended church. We can tell if they give money. We can tell if they've taken any ‘action steps.' So, during the TEXT series, if they signed up to receive text messages, that's permanently in their record[s]."

Of the 125 who partook in the TEXT action step, Adair says 100 percent are more than still attending-many are joining in on more challenges. Now Relevant Church has scheduled different retention drives twice a year, amid the 2008 "Year of Challenges." Worshippers have new goals to meet every 30 days, such as the recent "We Are Relevant" push in October to define the church's role in their lives and in the lives of the community.So, at a time when Adair says average church attendance is static to slumping, Relevant is growing. During the past year, Relevant's overall attendance has grown by more than 50 percent, from 230 to 350. 

He credits a large part of this growth to the collected data that allows the church to enhance its ability to service the congregation's needs. For instance, if the information shows 20 percent of the attendees live in a certain Tampa neighborhood, the church can create a small group meeting for the area that can even cater to its demographics-young and single or married with children-and perhaps have a better chance of retaining 
those worshippers.

Meanwhile, those who've grown up ensconced in traditional religion probably never thought they'd see the day that churches became savvy marketers. But that day is here, Adair says. 

"We put a ton of effort into marketing. A ton," he says. "Because it's got to be something that people who don't go to church are interested in. If you send out a black and white, boring, cut-and-paste bulletin, that's no good-well, who's going to be interested in a church like that?"

But what matters most to Relevant's ministry is reaching those in the pews with God's message. As Adair puts it, if Relevant markets "to these people halfheartedly, well then, they're going to think we think of our God halfheartedly."

When Serving Sucks.

 

Paul used an illustration few weeks ago with two types of fish tanks. He talked about fresh and salt water and how the two types of fish can’t mix. Here’s the tragic back-story behind what you saw on stage.

Saturday night I set up the tanks. Beach sand and ocean water made the salt tank and the fresh water tank came from Walmart. I could have bought small fish salt water from the pet store, but bigger fish from my home 75 gallon reef system would make a better point.        

Sunday morning at 7:00am I attempted to catch the fish in my home aquarium. They kept hiding in the rocks. I started tearing the tank apart to get these fish. Buckets filled with siphoned water protected the rock and coral I pulled out of the tank. With in minutes my pristine home tank was in shambles. My kids, stood in their PJ’s, are staring at me.

Finally, I caught my first fish, then the second. As I looked for the third, I saw a yellow snout sticking out from under a large rock. Ahh. I moved the rock and realized that my final catch would never move again; he was crushed.

Ironically, this is the same fish I freed previously from the deadly grip of a clam. Me and my yellow fish had a delayed appointment with destiny. Off to Relevant.

I dumped these Caribbean fish into 62 degree water. I’m sure they remembered the comfortable 81 degree tank they just left. I ran down to the cantina to set-up for children’s ministry. Tim Mann greeted me with a cheerful smile; a smile I could not return. He asked if he could help with anything. “Not unless you can raise fish from the dead” I responded.

The fish in question, were valued at $150-$180 each. The dead one would have fetched $120. All of these fish were at least 9 years old. I gave them 2 pinches of food daily, for 2 years. I brought 15 gallons of new water to the tank weekly. They experienced dawn, daytime, dusk and even moon light. I even scooped their poop. My sons knew them as Nemo, Dori, and the Yellow one.

While I was laying tiles in the children’s area those thoughts raced through my mind. “Why am I so angry?” I wondered. I was not not angry at God, but at myself. I went all out for this illustration. “I could loose everything”. Laid another tile.

 

Carl and the band practiced upstairs; loud as usual. I laid another tile.

Jesus paid it all,
 All to Him I owe; 
Sin had left a crimson stain,
 He washed it white as snow.

 

And when before the throne 
I stand in Him complete, 
I’ll lay my trophies down
 All down at Jesus’ feet.”

 

 

I began to weep, quietly. Laid another tile. I started to see all my selfishness. I was committed to making this illustration work. I never imagined how much my commitment would cost. I never considered how much work it was going to be. Two days of prep unraveled 2 years of nurturing. I never thought I would lose something I cared for. Laid another tile. As Carl sang the refrain again, “Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe”, I felt terrible that God gave his son and I could not give a few fish.

Serving has a cost. Serving is not dependent on our feelings. Faithful serving is a process of letting go of ourselves one bit at a time.

 

 

You are my Beefsteak.

I have a small garden growing in my yard. One of the starter plants that all new gardeners use is tomatoes. My first tomatoes were cherry. They were small and totally useless. They grow fast and rot quickly. This season I picked larger breed of tomato; Beefsteak.. Here is what I didn’t know. Big tomatoes take a whole lot longer to grow.  After months of watering this plant its like 6 foot tall. But only in the past few weeks have the tomatoes started budding.  They are still green but I can finally see the fruit beginning to grow.

         I planted two identical Beefsteak tomato plants. Both are tall and both take a lot of work. One is producing fruit and the other has buds but no fruit. Not one. The plant is totally useless. I guess I could use it as a hedge or give it as a house warming gift to an enemy.

         There are lots of believers in the kingdom. Unfortunately, some take lots of water and care yet still they don’t give back. They keep all the nutrition for themselves. They, like this tomatoe plant have forgotten their purpose.

         On the other hand there are those believers who step-up, step-out and produce fruit. They find their place, and they make a difference. YOU are a part of the people at Relevant that produce fruit. Some-times it takes a while to see the fruit in others and often it takes longer to see the fruit in ourselves. Be assured that God has been watering, pruning, and caring for you all along. 

Distractions.

I was playing Racquetball this morning. It did not go well. I found myself highly distracted. Being a medicated ADD person, I know that I am medically superior to the average Joe. But most of the time we are a highly distracted people. We find our minds wandering from one thought to another.

            I found myself thinking: “How bad will this market crash be, 1980’s or 1920’s? Why don’t the kids clean up their own crap? I hope my wife feels better. Who is on Facebook? My house value is down $80k. Why is everyone I know sick or broke?” Oh wait I’m playing Racquetball- get in the game.

An old boss I used to work for always pushed me to limit the number of distractions in my life. I thought he was Scrooge-ing me. Surly he was watching out for himself. In reality he wanted me to focus on the few things that would feed my family. As I observe myself, and the remainder of humanity, I notice that when times get tough we find even more ways to become distracted. More often we will relish in thoughts of misery. We get stuck in our own experience that we can’t see that we are in the middle of a game we care about. We forget what is at stake. It is the Kingdom of God in people’s lives; a game far more important that Racquetball.

Whether on Sunday morning or during the week in a Growth Group each of you takes a role at Relevant. I am so glad that you have a laser focus on the most important priority in your spiritual service. I am thrilled when I see volunteers who could be shootin the breeze with their friends down-stairs; instead they engaged a new couple in conversation. This kind of laser focus resulted in the visitors signing up for a growth group and coming to Carefest. I know it is hard to keep distractions out of our minds but by serving something greater than ourselves we add value and meaning for eternity in the lives of those we touch. 

I got my first.

6:45am: A frantic wife calls to her loving, and still asleep, husband,  “Hey, the fridge is broken.” Apparently the coils froze over. So Carly and I moved all the food out into the shed fridge, and for three days, we made trips out to the shed fridge to make dinner. Once, I even thought, “You know you’re a redneck when you find yourself in the backyard, barefoot, getting milk out of your shed fridge.”

Finally, with my trusty cordless drill in hand; I began the process of removing the panels covering the frozen coil. Ethan came over to help his dear, old dad, and you know how the story goes. He had to have a job. I gave him the job of holding all of the screws that I extracted from the panel.

Then it happened. All of a sudden, without warning and without prompting, Ethan said it. Words I had not heard from him before.  At least, not without coaching. He said it, my jaw dropped, and I wasn’t sure what to say, or how to respond. “I love you, dad.”

 

How long do we serve in an area of ministry and desire to hear about the difference we make?  How long have we served without being served? How long have we wanted to know that someone felt cared for, because of what we are doing? One day it will come.

Despair Factory Bailout

A family waits in the hospital for a doctor’s coat to approach with news. A wife wrestles with her distant husband’s addiction to bottles of all kinds. A man driving his 4-cylinder beater car sighs as he realizes that he has not actually filled up the tank in over a year. A man with a credit score of 705 contemplates if he should just let the house go. After all it’s worth $100,000 less than what he paid for it. Pastors of young vibrant new churches gather to figure out how to keep their doors open.  Taxpayers all over the nation are bracing for the fallout from the Fanny and Freddy default. Presidential candidates recite a nation’s despair, offer promises, and then ask for a vote.

 

            It seems just about every place one looks despair abounds. Its almost like in the cosmos a factory exists. This “Despair Factory” has an assembly line working over time to produce difficulties. Some difficulties are even customized. It seems like so many are in places of despair.

 

             Hindus call it Karma, while the Buddhists call it “The four passing sights”. What happens when our time of shock has past? How long will we savor the words “your fired”, “recession”, and “I’m pregnant”? In the west, Americans don’t reflect on despair, rather blame is assigned to everyone but the troubled. We find ways to relish in our misery. There are entire sections of daytime TV set aside to enjoying misery.

             

When trouble comes along people’s eyes glaze over and incapacity sets in. Any foreclosure defendant will attest the paralyzing effect of impending doom. What does it take to snap out of it? Where is the big restart button? What bailout is needed to bring hope back? Maybe the question is ”How can hope be used to bailout the Despair Factory?”

 

At the very basic level hope offers purpose to our struggle. Most often, hope offers a sense of better days ahead? Paying for next week’s gas and praying for healing asks hope for an immediate action.  Hope itself does not fill a gas tank nor does it heal. But hopeless place themselves at the end of the despair factory production line repeatedly. Hope offers reason and purpose to great struggle. Martin Luther held hope in the midst of huge struggle. Yes the original Martin Luther and Martin the King had at the core of their message purpose to their struggle. Hope fueled their drive for change. Don’t confuse hope with a campaign slogan or marketing piece. Hope naturally encourages action for those who have internalized it.

 

For believers in Christ we have a dualistic approach to hope.  We know that God makes Earthly provision. Believers also know that the calling of Christ has hope of salvation. Often the big picture of faith is lost in the details of the day. The wind blows and masses follow the dust it created. We know that troubles we face have greater implications. They fit into God’s greater picture. Even those things that seem meaningless, God weaves into the mosaics of our faith. There is a time for mourning. And there is a time for action. Let us weep with those who mourn.

 

Ironically, some believers respond to any adversity by looking for God to console rather than convict. Let us spur on those whose hope has been stolen by life’s circumstances. Some call it “putting on the big boy pants” while others call it “pushing the baby out of the nest”. So how do we snap out of it? Is it the bootstraps or surrender before God? Both. Dark clouds are momentary.

 

People who make it through great trials have some of the following traits. Setting aside the blinding effect of life’s trials will be the biggest challenge.  

 

·      Gain a realistic perspective of just how good or bad a situation is.

·      Stop talking about what you can’t do, start doing what you can do.

·      Essentualize-Get back to the basics.

·      Change your mind, starting with your tongue.  Speak the good, silence the negative. The tongue has power. It starts plenty of bar fights and secures many first dates.

·      Gain wise outside perspective. The kind that’s hard to hear, not blindly comforting.

·      Pray for God’s guidance on the tangible stuff: “Should I pay my rent or go to a movie?”

Faith or Wisdom

Ecclesiastes 1

 12 I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid on men! 14 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind. 15 What is twisted cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted. 16 I thought to myself, "Look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge." 17 Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind. 18 For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.

Questions:

Why is the wisest man unfulfilled?

Is the acquisition of wisdom a dangerous pursuit?

Is this comparable to the tree of Good and Evil?

 Reflections:

In my circle of influence it seems that health is the topic of the day. I can’t remember a time when more people in my life have been dying, sick, or dealing with a family member’s drama. Many church workers have prematurely passed away. I have been watching how people have reacted to their traumatic situations. Some turn to prayer. Some turn to grief. Some stand in shock.

In two cases I have observed what truly seems like miracles. When I left the charismatic movement I didn’t leave the idea that God could heal. But I did stop looking around every corner for a demon or a miracle. One person lay on the hospital table receiving CPR for 30 minutes. Most people don’t normally come back. Another person involved in a typically fatal motorcycle accident, still lives. The man is in his late 60’s not his 20’s.

When I get the phone call about these and other less fortunate medical situations, I feel my faith sink. I find myself knowing just enough about medicine to know when its real bad. I’m not a doctor, but I have seen a lot of these end-of-life situations come along. Words like DNR, Aneurism, and Melanoma have more power than my faith. I wonder if the more I know, will I become more like the son of King David? Jaded, sorrowful, and grief stricken. Just maybe blind faith is wiser than wisdom that destroys faith.