BIRTHDAY REFLECTIONS

Yesterday was my birthday - 47. I had a great day. Here's what a guy like me does on his birthday.

I began the day with a good friend of mine, Terry Mann (pastor of Fountain Park Church) doing what we do every other Monday morning - drinking large amounts of coffee, kicking around life and ministry, and encouraging one other to be all that God intends us to be. One of yesterday's highlights was the finalization of our travel plans for a trip together to LA in May to attend ORIGINS. I participated last year and I am looking forward to sharing the experience with Terry, as he is one of the biggest dreamers I know.

During the mid-day I gathered with about a dozen other missional leaders at the home of Scott Sunquist (professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary) for the second missional pastor’s cohort. This is a brand new group that I am involved with and we are committed to traveling together on the path of solid biblical and theological reflection on the practice of leadership in the local church. Yesterday our topic of conversation was Missional Hermeneutics and we discussed some ideas found in Lesslie Newbiggin's, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society. It was good to wrap my mind and heart around some of these ideas.

Taking full advantage of a 75 degree afternoon, I hit the road for a 45 minute run. Over the past three months I have made a commitment to getting the body back in shape and apart from nagging back pain, things are going pretty well. I have been leveraging the time to take in some podcasts and yesterday I listened to a dynamic talk from Mark Batterson, speaking about the God story behind the opening of their coffee shop in Washington, DC. Talk about a venti dream – wow!

Birthday dinners are big in our household and we typically hang out at Outback. Yesterday was no different. The Outback special and lots of brown bread make us very happy. I was even treated to an Aussie version of Happy Birthday.

After dinner, our Ministry Coordination Group gathered for our monthly meeting in the atrium of the Galleria. One of our leaders baked a cake for me (white cake – yes!) and I was truly blessed as team members took time around the table to pray for me. Thanks to Marlaena for carving out the meeting time and space to celebrate with me.

I made it home by about 8:30 PM which left enough just time to open a few presents and share in the traditional poppy seed cake (my favorite passed along by my Grandmother Timm now lovingly baked by my wide Patty). I received some special birthday cards including three handcrafted cards, one designed by my daughter Hannah (an art student at Mercyhurst College), a “Bono wishes you a Happy Birthday” card from my son, Sam (including a classic image of Bono from the early ‘80’s) and a family portrait from Abby. My two sons had a secret mission after dinner and they returned with a special gift, an autographed copy of Mike Greenberg’s book, Why My Wife Thinks I am an Idiot. I am a big Mike and Mike fan (much bigger Greenberg than Golic) and my son Nathan discovered that Mike happened to be signing books last night at the local Barnes and Nobles. That was pretty cool!

And what better way to top off a birthday than with a compelling episode of 24. Yeah, Logan cried (but so did Jack) – best hour on TV.

As my younger brother Rob said to me earlier in the day, we getting older, but better (well at least he said that about himself). Amen to that.

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EARTH AND DIRT AND YOU

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of this 40 day season of preparation the Church calls Lent. As many of you know, I am not a huge liturgical kind of guy, but this day does hold special significance for me and as I reflect upon it this morning I am reminded of the incredible mystery of God's love and grace for me (and us) in Christ Jesus - love and grace that takes up residence in this very body.

This morning in our Momentum for Life study we were talking about the "E" in DRIVE which stands for Eating and Exercise. We read together Paul's words from 1 Corinthians 6:

"Didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Didn’t you see that you can't live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body" (1 Corinthians 6:18-20, The Message).

Wow - our bodies are dwelling places of the Holy Spirit and the vessels through which Christ's work is accomplished in this world. In another text Paul calls our bodies, "jars of clay." How could this be?

On this day in many traditions, ashes are offered to the faithful and presented to the people of God with these words: "Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return. Turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ."

Those words remind me of my origins. I am dust, but oh what precious dust. God has breathed His very life into me, His very Spirit living in me.

Over the past couple of months, this truth has come alive for me through the words of a song by the David Crowder Band called "Wholly Yours" (I have discovered that when God really wants to get my attention God uses a song). The bridge of “Wholly Yours” contains these words:

But the harder I try
The more clearly can I
Feel the depth of our fall
And the weight of it all
And so this might could be
The most impossible thing
Your grandness in me making me clean.

And then concludes with this tag (but oh what a precious tag it is) - I am filled with earth...and dust...and You.

How wonderful, how mysterious, how gracious is that?

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