Growing up in church, I have watched different church leaders either succeed or fail.  I remember one pastor from my youth who was pretty young himself.  He was eager to be pastor and do great things in church.  He was not, however, teachable.

A lot of the time this quality can be overlooked and yet I think it is probably one of the most important qualities that a pastor or leader (or anyone for that matter) can have.  Are you ready to learn?  Do you think you know it all and that others have little to offer?  Being teachable requires being humble because you have to admit that you have things to learn.  It requires you to be sensitive because you need to notice things in others that you could learn from.

I am thankful for older men (and women) who have helped me grow and learn.  They challenge my areas of weakness and teach me where I need to grow and develop.  I am also thankful for the younger men that I work with who are teachable.  Who are eager to learn and want to know more and do better.  It is no small feat to be teachable.

I hope that I will stay teachable.  I don't want to reach a point where I no longer am willing to examine myself and learn from others.

I heard a great story from Mac after the service yesterday.  I wanted to share it here because it was such an awesome picture.

Mac planted a small garden at his house this year and just this week was excited to see how it was developing.  The bell peppers had blossomed and you could see the small little peppers just beginning to appear.  The same with the cucumbers.  Small little cukes were showing themselves.  Mac was feeling good.  So just a day or two ago Mac started his morning sitting with his coffee and reflecting on how thankful he was to God for bringing him and his family to the woods of Maine.  Mac had lived in the city in California, and he was rejoicing that now he could live out in the woods of Maine.  His heart was full of thankfulness to God for the quiet beauty and pace of life in Weld.  Than Mac went out to check on his garden.  There were the deer tracks around the garden and there were the stumps of the pepper and cucumber plants, chewed down to the bottom of the stalk.  All gone.   Now Mac's heart was filled with frustration and anger.  Time to open the property to the hunters this fall.  How dare those deer destroy his plants!?  Then Mac paused and had to laugh at himself.  How quickly he had left behind the thankful attitude toward God for moving him out into the woods.  Of course, those were God's deer and God knew perfectly well that they were going to eat Mac's garden.  God had allowed it.

Mac relayed that story to me after church yesterday as we discussed the sermon on idols and the things that we put our faith and energy into.  How quickly we can shift our focus off of God when things don't go the way we think they should.  The Bible says that godliness is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment.  Contentment is not merely being happy when things are going your way.  Contentment is being a peace with whatever way things are going.

What are the deer in your garden?  What things has God allowed to come into your life that you allow to destroy a spirit of thankfulness and contentment?  I find that I have too many deer myself.  Too many things that get me in a bad mood and keep me from appreciating all that God is doing.

Mac's story reminded me of Jonah, who got upset over a worm that ate a favored plant, but had no compassion for a city full of lost people.  A good reminder to all of us of where our priorities lie.  Thank you Mac for letting me use your story today on the blog.

This morning as I am up early getting myself and helping getting the kids ready for church, it makes me think of all the preparation represented in today.  I worked hard over the last few weeks preparing this morning's message.  It took planing, study, and work to put it all together.  Others practice and planned for the music and kids lessons.  This afternoon over 40 kids will descend on Berea to start our first week of camp.  This morning they are no doubt doing last minute preparations, getting ready to leave for Camp this afternoon.  We as a staff have been very busy this last week preparing.  The grounds and facilities have needed to be prepared, along with staff training, program planning and preparation, and food work.  A lot of work to get ready for a few weeks of Camp.

This put me in mind of the coming of the Lord.  Jesus repeatedly told His followers to prepare for His return.  His return, and our future with Him, is a big deal.  Yet how much time, thought, and preparation are we putting into His return.  Are we ready?   Do we even have any idea what preparing for His return entails?  I don't know what things you are preparing for today or this week, but as you prepare for the things in your life, think through what preparation you should be doing for the next life.  Jesus is coming, perhaps today!

It has been a very busy week with Camp and church.  Staff week was this week and I have been working frantically to get things ready for camp as well as trying to keep up with church and family things.  Sarah was feeling very ill today but fortunately I had planned to take the day to spend with the family, so I was able to take the kids for the afternoon while she slept.  We had to take a drive which gave the boys a chance to take a nap and we then had a great time in the water.  Daddy didn't really get to swim much himself, but that was not as important as the great play time I had with the three kids.  After we got the kids to bed, Sarah (feeling a little better) and I got to spend some quiet time sitting on the porch, reflecting on the day.

Tomorrow church and the second installment of God's Relationship Guide.  I'm looking forward to it.  Then the campers will descend on us tomorrow as we kick off first week!  Can't believe it is here already!

I am going to work hard this year to not neglect the blog during camp this year.  This week was extra busy with getting things set up, but I plan to make sure I take time during each week to post on here.  The last two years I didn't do so well.

You may not notice any difference but we just upgraded the software that runs both Nate's and my blog.  It should continue to help us be more effective in how we communicate.  Now if only the software could help us in what we communicate!  :)

 

In this articlea man waits anxiously for 15 minutes to find out if he is HIV positive. He is understandably nervous. I took particular note of this line in the article. "He admits that he now realizes that 30 minutes of pleasure suddenly seems heavier. One of those 30 minutes of pleasure could change the rest of his life." I am glad that this man turned out not to have HIV, but I find it interesting that this was not his first test. "This is Weatherington's third test and, hopefully, third negative result. His last test was seven months ago." So he went through this two other times and each time, after being relieved, went back and still did the same thing that could endanger his life again. Those must some pretty intense 30 minutes of pleasure to be willing to risk the rest of your life and the suffering that can result of developing full blown AIDS. Isn't that just the way with us as humans so often. We know their will be consequences to our actions, but the short term gain seems so real and the long-term pain seems so far away. I think the place where this is most true is our view of eternity. That's going to be a long term thing, and yet so many ignore getting ready for eternity, more interested in doing now what they want. Even Christians who truly know Christ will often sacrifice the rewards of the future and the chance to reach friends for eternity, more interested in living for a few moments of pleasure today.