Transforming Church

In following this calling, Olaf has turned from a life of privilege, deferring modern conveniences and any possibility of wife and family for the sake of his work and ministry. First, he established the medical clinic. Then, with the help of Lutheran friends in the States and Germany, he funded and built a solar well with a large storage tank. Before that the women were walking six miles a day to haul water in the dry season. Now, he is helping them learn subsistence farming on a plot of land the community shares and irrigates from the well. Now, he is launching a church, in an area that is overwhelmingly Muslim. I could never do what he is doing. I remember a meditation I saw a while back entitled, God, please don't send me to Africa. These were my sentiments exactly. I think many people shrink back from fully exploring the life God is calling them to, fearful that it will lead to such an outcome. Olaf is truly an inspiration to me, a servant of God who is drinking deeply from the well of the water of life. He is living abundantly, even in these meager circumstances. The strength to live out this calling is rooted in his deep faith, a faith that he is nurturing constantly.

Last week, I discovered the betrayal of my trust by a friend of 25 years, someone who was in small group with me for several years. He has been a partner in my work for five years. His betrayal nearly derailed my work and calling, deeply wounding our team. I was stunned and devastated to discover the deception. Sharing the news with our leadership team, I felt shame that I had let him make a fool of me and threaten the success of the team. We were forced to acknowledge the major setback, and had to examine whether we, individually and as a team, could pick up the pieces and move on. Once again, I experienced the importance of seeing reality clearly, if we are to achieve the goals we set. Once again, I was reminded how difficult it is for any of us to fully comprehend the reality we face.

As the team wrestled with the implications of this challenge, we had to look inward, to see where we would gather the energy to move forward. "At least we finally have clarity, and can make a plan based on knowing where we stand," said one, as we began to examine what we had in place to move forward. After spending time examining the options with one of our project consultants, she suggested that we take a ten-minute break for a Quaker meeting, a time of silent prayer. When we hung up the phone, we agreed, and went into the sanctuary of the church where we were meeting. After ten minutes of silent prayer together, we were able to move on. Over our time together, a strong, collaborative team has emerged. We have many elements in place to help us move forward successfully. In the dark clouds of the storm that engulfed us with the news of the deception, we had a difficult time seeing these things.

After the two day meeting, I returned home. The next morning, I had my scheduled appointment with my spiritual director, Mark Ritchie. As I shared the story, as is his usual practice, he asked what question I had for the Spirit. "How do you deal in a healthy way with betrayal?" I asked. He asked me to think of examples of betrayal in the Bible. I named the obvious example, Judas, and a couple of others. "How did Jesus respond to betrayal by Judas?" he asked. I thought for a minute, and did not have a quick response. "He washed his feet," Mark replied. I remembered that indeed, Jesus was fully aware that he was about to be betrayed when he gathered the disciples for the Last Supper.

John 13: 1It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love. 2The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. 3Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

I have a deep well of perseverance and resiliency, born of my 15 years working with my father who could be a very difficult man. I have had to draw on this well many times since I left the business world to pursue a calling equipping Christian leaders for the kingdom. Since last fall, I have encountered multiple health issues that have set me back and drained my energy. (see Sometimes I'm not willing to let God be God and Humility: a painful lesson to learn). Now, as I am slowly gathering my energy and moving towards health, I encountered this betrayal.

As I talked with Mark, I told him that I was surprised that I did not hold any deep personal resentment or anger, no desire to retaliate or hope for my friend to be punished. I really believe I have forgiven him already. When I saw my friend, to get the records of our work together, he said, "I know it will be a long time before you can forgive me." I put my hand on his shoulder and told him that I love him like a brother, and I've already forgiven him. I realize these feelings are not natural, that I, in my own strength, am not capable of such a response. It is not like I would have responded ten years ago to such a situation. I realize that God has been working on me, and the resilience I need now comes not from me but from the Spirit.

Where do we get such energy? It comes from our roots. In a previous article (Are you windfirm? ), I wrote about the resilience of the Aspen grove. Genie and I spend half our life at a cabin in the Front Range Mountains of Colorado. Since we finished our cabin, we have become very aware of the danger of wildfire. We have seen several devastating fires on the ridges near our property, and had one lightning strike cause a fire on our property. Lodgepole and Ponderosa pines share our mountainside with the Aspens. Each copes differently with the same environment.

Unlike the stands of pine, an Aspen grove is actually one organism. Its roots spread out and send up shoots to become new trees, replicating its DNA across the hillside. The power of the Aspen is in its root system. Ponderosa Pines grow sparsely on the slopes, with deep roots and very thick bark. They can survive all but the worst fires. We have seen some on our property with scars from fires in the distant past. Lodgepoles grow in very dense stands, which are usually completely wiped out by a fire in a stand-clearing event. They cope by producing seeds that open at 800 degrees. So when the fire comes and opens up the canopy, killing the existing stand, the pine cones open, and a new stand emerges from the old, with abundant water and sun to regenerate the stand. While the pines each have a mechanism to deal with fire, the Aspen trumps them all. The root system of the Aspen grove has so much energy stored up that a fire that burns the trees to the ground will just spark new shoots coming up from the roots. The stand survives.

When clearing a ski trail on our property, I cut down some six foot Aspen saplings. Within three years, there were six-foot saplings again standing where I had cut them down. The power is in the roots.

I just finished Richard Foster's new book, Life with God: Reading the Bible for Spiritual Transformation. It is an inspiring book, with wonderful insights about learning to live a faith filled life. In the middle of the book, Foster tells us that he embarked on a year of meditating on the story of Lazarus. Now wrap your head around that one, a whole year meditating about that one story. Four months in, Foster embarks on a trip to Korea to learn more of how God is using the Korean church to teach the world something about prayer. He tells of his hosts presenting him with two dozen roses. The next morning, in his time of meditation, he looks up to see the roses laying on a table, starting to wilt. In typical man fashion, he did not even put them in water, just left them lying on the table.

In that moment, Foster heard a word from the Lord. "My church in America is like those flowers. There is still some beauty in the bloom, but they have been cut off from their roots." Foster says he began to weep, because he knew this to be true. Then he heard a further word, "But, I will rebuild my church, but first, we have to regrow the roots." Foster explains that the roots are prayer, the vehicle through which the power of God comes to us as humans.

Just as the Aspens store the energy to survive disaster in their roots, so we tap into the energy to survive through our roots. It is the spiritual disciplines that God uses to grow our roots deep and strong. God's presence is all around us, but without rooting ourselves in prayer and meditation, bible reading and reflection, worship, serving and sharing our gifts with the world, we will have shallow roots incapable of sustaining us in turbulent times. The water of life is freely available, but we have to choose to tap into it by developing our root system. I am only as strong as my roots. I thank God for sustaining me through challenges, storms, gale force winds, and the betrayal of friends. I take time to nurture those roots every day, and it is the best investment of time I could possibly make.

Are your roots deep enough to keep you from toppling over in a storm? From being burned? From the destruction of an earthquake? Worried about the future? The present? Your job? Your marriage? Your kids? Your retirement? If you know how to worry, you know how to meditate, it is just a matter of redirecting your focus from the problem to God. Remember, Peter was walking on the water until he took his focus off Jesus and looked at the waves around him. Then, he started to sink. The faith to sustain us is itself sustained by our intentional time of growing roots. May you be rooted in the Word, and feel God's presence in the storms of your life.