KrystalKennard

No Time

It almost goes without saying, we live in a busy world with a lot of demands of our time. The funny thing is, I do not remember this as a kid. I was born into it, and it seemed natural. However, the older I have become the more I remember the carefree days of my youth. I am afraid that my kids, born into the busyness of their world will one day long for the carefree days of their youth. Things just seem to be growing at an exponential pace.

Back in the 1930’s the term “rat race” began to be used. A quick search of a definition says this is the unpleasant life of people who have jobs that require them to work very hard in order to compete with others for money, power, status, etc. In other words, It refers to doing anything that takes all your time and energy to “get ahead” while leaving no time for rest, relaxation, and renewal.

Even when we go on vacation, from the casual observation, we are not escaping. In fact, I am guilty of this same thing. Having, just come back from a vacation with my family, I noticed how little time I spent just doing nothing. I was planning the next thing we would do, whether it was a meal, experiencing an event, or riding an amusement park ride. Even 48 hours before my flight home I was setting alarms and reminders for me to check in to my flight 24 hours before it took off!

No wonder cases of depression, anxiety, and mental health disorders are on the rise. Especially in our youth!

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) more and more people are living with this type of stress in their lives. (See the article here). The statistics are startling! Just take a look at the most recent report published by Mental Health America. I have noticed in my own life that my cup is very full and that I too am becoming a statistic.

I am more emotional, I do not have the mental energy I have had in the past, and my favorite activity (for this extrovert who gets energy from people) is to just sit and do nothing. I have been in the “rat race” and it has taken its toll.

I suppose I am writing this, not only as a confessional, but also as therapy, trying to be transparent. I need to get back to the things I love, the things that empty my cup and do not cause it to overflow. I need to create margin in my life for the things that bring renewal.

Margin does not mean that I will not love any less, care any less, or have less compassion in my life or in my calling. It just means I need to find the space to take care of myself. Otherwise I will not be able to love my wife, my children, or others as I need to (and want to) love. Margin is that space in your life that you purposely rest, take time to renew and to recharge. We all need it!

When I was in seminary we a had a class on pastoral self care where we were require to read the book Boundaries by Dr. Henry Cloud and John Townsend. It explained that, “Having clear boundaries was essential to a healthy, balanced lifestyle.” Healthy boundaries, whether they are physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual, help us set limits. They create margin in our lives so we can, in a healthy way, find balance and determine those things in our lives for which we are responsible. Boundaries help us make time for those things that renew, recharge, and reenergize us.

For me, reestablishing boundaries will create the margin where I can write again. I find that it is important for my mental health, but in reality is it something I have neglected. Just take a look at this blog. It has been a solid 11 years since I have posted anything. That is too long. Way too long. Writing helps me empty my cup so I have room in my life.

Hopefully you have been inspired to take a deep look at your own life and will begin to take steps you need to take to create margin in you life.

Until next time….

Pastor Barry

Too Good To Be True…

Don’t we all long for the assurance that something we believe in is true? Don’t we wish we could look at something, read something, or hear something and believe it? Why are we such skeptics? Why do we question?

For instance, if we see a picture and it is too hard to believe, what do we say about it? We say it has been photo shopped. If we see a video and it is too hard to believe, what do we say about it? We say it has been digitally altered and edited.

We truly are at a point that we can’t believe our eyes. We are conditioned to believe something isn’t 100 percent real. It looks real. It feels real. It may even smell real. But we know it isn’t real. We are conditioned to doubt. We are conditioned to question.

Look at magic shows. We know someone really doesn’t saw a person in half. We know a magician doesn’t really make a tiger disappear. We know there is a trick; we know there is a gimmick. We just are seeing the whole picture. So we question, we wonder, we doubt.

Look at movies. We go to them to be entertained. To be drawn into a world that isn’t real. Take for instance the movie inception. That itself is a movie based on a premise that we don’t know the difference between what is real and what is just a dream being played out totally in our minds. The hero can tell….he just has to spin a top and if it falls….its real.

How about the movie Soul Surfer? The real Bethany Hamilton lost her arm in a shark attack. The actress in that movie (AnnaSophia Robb) had hers digitally removed in postproduction. Sure looks like she lost it. Sure looks like it has been removed. Even Lt. Dan lost both of his legs in Forest Gump but the last time I say a picture of Gary Sinise he had both of his.

Do you see what I am getting at? We are being conditioned to doubt, to question, to know that something isn’t real. We are training ourselves to know that there is some sort of gimmick. Don’t get me wrong…. it is good to question…. it is good to learn…. but it is sad when we doubt everything. It is sad when we truly believe in nothing. It is sad when we have no assurance.

So this brings me right back to my question. Don’t you really wish and long for something that seems to good to be true to actually be true?

The cross of Jesus Christ represents just that. It represents something that seems too good to be true, but isn’t! It represents grace – that free gift of something we don’t deserve. Grace that was given out of love, pure unconditional no strings attached love. Does that sound too good to be true? It isn’t because the cross is about love and we can believe it. It says, “Greater Love hath no man than the one who would lay is life down for another,” John 15:13.

Jesus says in John 8:30-32, “Then many who heard him say these things believed in him, ‘you are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teaching. And you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.’“

If you believe the truth you will have two things….you will be free and you will be my disciples. To be free is to be released, liberated, or delivered from something. To be a disciple is to embrace and assist in spreading the teachings of another.

As we look at what the cross of Jesus Christ know that we can have assurance. We can have 100% trust that what we are hearing and reading from the Bible is NOT too good to be true.

The Cross says “Believe in ME!”

Until next time….

Pastor Barry

It Was One Of Those Mornings…

I sort of meandered to work this morning…

I’m sure you have had those days where you really aren’t in a hurry. You have plenty of time and you just take it slow. You look at things around you. You drive slower. You drive with a little more patience. You really listen to the words on the radio. You kind of become like one of those lazy rivers in no real hurry to get from point A to point B. Well, this morning was one of those mornings.

It started by driving slowly around my neighborhood. Instead of going straight I turned right…and then left…and then left again…and then another right…I think you get the point. I was looking at houses, at colors, at the scenery. All too often we seem to zoom past things and not even notice what is around us. We don’t take it in. Well, it was one of those mornings.

There is this intersection on the way to the church. Just before you enter the freeway. Three lanes merge into two as you enter and two lanes expand to four as you come off. It’s a big intersection and a very busy one, full of people having to get somewhere. Hurrying.

There are even pedestrians. I fear for those pedestrians. It is a wide intersection, a very wide intersection to try and cross. Six lanes to be exact, well eight if you count turn lanes. It seems people barely have enough time, those cars are in too much of a hurry. I myself am usually guilty of this. But today, well, it was one of those mornings.

I actually wish I could have sat at that light this morning. I wanted to watch. I wanted to take in the sites.

You see, there was this Canadian Goose at the edge of the cross walk…slowly…pensively…purposefully starting to put one step in front of the other as he entered traffic. Black, webbed feet were being picked up and laid down. He was slowly, and by slowly, I mean slowly crossing against traffic. I found myself rooting for him, hoping for him, and praying for him.

The rest of the way here I thought about that goose. Did he make it? Did he survive? Did he get where he wanted to go? Probably, but I guess I will never know.

It made me think. How many times have I not arrived someplace because I was too afraid, to afraid to take that first step and then another and then another. The answer? A lot…

In Mark Chapter 10 of the Bible. We are told the story about a rich man who wanted to know how to get to someplace. He wanted Heaven. He wanted eternal life. And so he came to Jesus for the answer. The funny part is, he already knew the answer. I think deep down he knew it before he asked the question. He knew there was something else He should be doing. He knew he needed to take one more step. He knew where he had to go. He was just afraid to do it. He didn’t want to cross that road.

The story is sad. The man turned away from Jesus and we are led to believe he never crossed that road. He was too afraid.

The good news is that he didn’t have to be. Later in that chapter, verse 27 to be specific. Jesus tells us that humanly speaking it is impossible for man to get to Heaven, to inherit eternal life, but not with God. With God, everything is possible! This man just needed to let God help him cross the road. This man just needed to let go and let God.

Did that goose ever cross the road safely? I bet he did. Was he afraid? Absolutely! You could tell by how slowly he was crossing. But he was crossing. He was consistent. He was deliberate. He was purposefully. He knew what he had to do and he was doing it.

It made me want to write, to think, and to ask, you the reader, and myself some questions. What is God asking me to do? What is God asking you to do? What “road” is He asking you to cross? What “road” is He asking me to cross? These roads…they are impossible to cross on our own. We might try but we will surely fail. In fact, I bet more often than not we don’t even try. With God, however, nothing is impossible! Everything is possible! Everything! Period. The end.

It was one of those mornings…

Until next time,

Pastor Barry

This Is A Game?

I won’t deny it. I’m competitive. I am a firm believer that the point of any good game is to have a single winner. And if there is a single winner then there is obviously at least one non-winner…if not more. Anyone want to play Settler’s of Catan or Ticket to Ride?

My daughter…she’s also competitive. She recently got a new “game” and challenged me to play her tonight. My response? GAME ON! The only problem is that this turned out to be no game…it was work.

The title of this game is called Create-A-Story. The object is to move your game piece around the board collecting cards, which are labled such enticing things like, topic sentence, setting, character, dialogue, plot, resolution, and lesson. (Sorting the cards into piles should have been my first idea…) Then after you have safely manuevered your way through the board you begin to create a story. And then you score the story. You get points for each card you use and ultimately everyone gets 100 points.

This is definitely, not a game for two reasons. First, there really is no winner. And second, this one requires you to write. I remember my English classes. Creative writing was no game! There were too many dangling participles and split-infinitives to make it fun. In fact, to this day I couldn’t tell you what those are, but I can tell you I always used them. Yep, no fun.

But I need to play because my daughter is actively and purposefully sorting through her cards, dulling her pencil, and shredding her eraser, I will begin my story…(maybe she won’t use all her cards.)

It was cold. It was really cold. The time machine landed with a loud thud, knocking me out of my seat. I was at the bottom of the ocean. Me and a pilgrim, a gorilla, an Alien, and the town bully. There were funny looking creatures everywhere. Where was I? Oh yeah…the bottom of the ocean. The problem was that the gauges were telling me I had gone forward in time, only for my time machine to break. Great….

Amidst my mumbling I thought to my self that one time on a cold and rainy, horribly terrific, freezing night, I received one million dollars for finding the ancient treasure. It was too much for one person. It led me to discover how to be generous and that persistence and determination could pay off. The end.

When adding up my score I get 10 points for using a topic sentence, 5 for when the story took place, and…oh never mind. Don’t I win for finishing my story first?

Until next time…

Pastor Barry

What’s In A Word?

For those of you who follow me in the blogosphere world – it doesn’t come as much of a surprise when I say that it has been a long time since my last post! I suppose then, that this is the time where I should run through a litany of excuses as to why so much time has passed. However, if I were to end up doing that I would be assured of two things: First, excuses don’t really matter, and second, no one really cares anyway. But this does matter…this post is finally making its way to your computer screen.

Now that the calendar has turned from 2011 to 2012 (and at the risk of over posting about the new year), I want to point out that we humans, as linear time marking beings, are naturally inclined to take this calendar turning thing as a moment to make resolutions. This is the time of year where we decide on things we want to change or do differently in the future. Now personally, I have never made it a practice of making resolutions, but because of my loving wife I do choose a “word” to live by for the coming year. Last year, as a matter of fact, we both by chance, chose the same word. It made a huge difference in our lives. We chose “obedience.”

It’s kind of amazing when you think about what’s in a word. Especially if you take the time to examine it, define it, choose to live by it and take ownership of it. Obedience is defined as being willing to obey or the act of obeying. It is submitting to someone else and their authority or command. Obedience is what brought my wife and my family to the central California coast. It is here that I pastor a wonderful community of believers at Living Hope Church of the Nazarene. (You should check them out at here.) But obedience was last year’s word…this year’s word is different.

Which, brings me back to why I am writing. This year’s word is part of the reason I am sitting at my kitchen table writing as my children are studying.

My girls are home schooled. One is doing math right now, and the other is writing in her journal. Neither really wants to be doing their work at this moment. But I guess who could blame them because there is, after all, an army of Barbie Dolls and a brand new Barbie House from Santa Claus beckoning from a few short feet away. So to get them to work – I had to resort to bribery. Which, actually begs the question, “Why should we as parents have to, or even resort to bribing our children to do something they should be doing in the first place?” My bribe? I told them I would sit and “work” if they would sit and work, which I was going to do anyway and wanted to do in the first place.

So here I am, with pencil, paper, and hand cramp writing my latest blog posting the old-fashioned way. I can’t remember the last time I actually sat down to hand write something and not type with the familiar hue of unnatural light emanating from my computer monitor. But here I am and it’s all because of this year’s word – “quality!”

Quality is why I have chosen to sit and write with my kids as they are doing school. Quality is why I am with them. Quality is why we are together.

For me, today, and at this moment quality is about being with, being present, and sharing an experience together. For my girls, quality will hopefully be about them remembering the time I took to “work” with them, alongside of them, and in front of them, rather than in my office across the city.

Please remember this about this post. Words are powerful. Words mean something. Words can change things. And in this case, my word for the year – quality – when defined as the degree of excellence of something – can really enhance other words. For example, quality when used in conjunction with time becomes so much more! After all, wouldn’t we all want quality time than just time?

This year quality is my word and quality is going to guide what I do. It is going to be my modifier! So let me ask you – what’s your word for 2012? I would love to know!

Until next time…

Pastor Barry

Do You Believe…

So I have a confession to make – I pray. Yep, it’s probably not everyday that you hear a pastor confess that he prays, but this one does. I pray for everything and anything! The problem is, I haven’t always believed when praying…that is until very recently.

Let me tell you a story…

A few weeks ago my wife and i decided to go and visit my grandma. She is very ill and we thought it was important for our daughters to visit their great-grandmother at least one more time. So we drove 8 hours south and visited. It was a great time and we snapped even better pictures. We visited, hugged, laughed, and prayed! It was a good visit!

On the way back home we stopped at Knott’s Berry Farm to have some fun. This is where my story really takes it’s turn. We were, inside the park, having a great time. We had just finished some rides and I was buying the family lunch while my wife was sitting at a table waiting for a show to start. Our baby’s stroller? It was right behind us. Nothing unusual or out of the ordinary. We have always done this. In fact everyone who has a stroller in these amusement parks has to park them somewhere at sometime. The next time you are in Disneyland I dare you to count the number of strollers parked outside of the Peter Pan ride!

So there we sat, eating and watching the show, having a great time. The show ended, we got up, cleaned up, and loaded up. Then my wife went to look for her phone (her Droid Samsung Charge to be specific) and couldn’t find it. We searched and searched and searched. Someone had stolen it from the stroller! The rest of the time in the park….MISERABLE. I immediately called Verizon and suspended our account and then quickly tried to remember all the “apps” that had been loaded. “Apps” that signed my wife into things like Netflix, Facebook, and GMail. It was horrible. We felt so violated.

Gone were the pictures of my girls, gone were some of the video my wife had taken of the girls, gone were all her emails and text messages and …. GONE!

So as a pastor I prayed. I prayed that God would let us find her phone. But you know what? The whole time I was praying I was saying to myself, “Why are you praying? Seriously? The devil has control of someone who took that phone and it is long gone and probably sold on Craig’s List already. Why are you praying.”

We left LA without her phone and came home. Three or four days later I was working around the church with my associate pastor when my phone rang. Here is the conversation…

“Hello.”

“Mr. Kennard?”

“Yes.”

“Hi, this is (so and so) and I was wondering if you lost a phone.”

“No – but we had one stolen from Knott’s Berry Farm.”

“Oh. Well I believe I have your phone. My daughter says she found it on a bus…but I wondered.”

“Really?”

“Yes, is it a Samsung Charge?”

“Yes.”

“Well I have it and I was wondering if you could come pick it up.”

“Not really, that is 6 hours away.”

“OK I will ship it to you. I’m a Christian and I want to the right thing.”

The conversation continued. I gave my address. Told her I was a pastor, prayed for her, hung up the phone and WEPT.

God had just slapped me upside the head and reminded me of something. He told me that He was God and that He was in control and that He could do anything He wanted. He then reminded me of my prayer and said, “You prayed but you didn’t believe. But I have chosen to answer your prayer anyway.” I cried more and then confessed my unbelief!

So I checked the mailbox daily. No phone. No phone. No phone. Two weeks and no phone. The devil started to play with my mind. I had said now I believe you God, but did I really? The phone was not showing up. I had bought a replacement. It was sitting at home. I had 14 days to return it and I was waiting to open the phone. I would return it when the other showed up. But it wasn’t showing up.

In Genesis God tells Abraham that He is going to be the father or many nations. He even says that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. He believed but believed even more AFTER he saw the fire consume the covenant offering. Years later he was asked to give back his son. Abraham believed and moved out. He acted without questioning.

I had questioned. I prayed and didn’t believe. I got an answer to prayer and then began to doubt. I was holding onto the new phone until the old phone actually arrived. I felt God telling me…you still don’t believe…

So last Friday, I sent the phone back. Still no stolen phone…

On Monday – guess what was in the mailbox…my wife’s phone. I fell before the Lord and confessed my unbelief once again. I believe…I really do. God did a work in this pastor and I am here to tell you. Believe because prayer works!

Until next time,

Pastor Barry

What Are You Doing…

I just have to write this morning. I am in the office on a beautiful Saturday morning and I am supposed to be putting the finishing touches on the sermon and service for this weekend. But God has interrupted me…I love it when He does that.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to take a little time to do some site seeing. My parents are in town from Washington State and they wanted to take a drive. After all, the Monterey Peninsula is truly one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. So we drove… We drove down Cannery Row and watched all the people as they hustled about. We passed the Coast Guard Dock, some very fancy hotels, a few artisan shops, some chain restaurants and snack shops, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and even the outlet stores.

We continued down the road around Asilomar State Beach and Campgrounds and then into Pebble Beach and the famed 17 -Mile Drive. Oh my! The vistas are incredible. God’s creation is amazing! And then there were the houses…castles on the coast I should call them. Towering, impressive, built of stone, and surrounded by tall fences and thick gates. Who ever was living there had every intention of keeping people out.

Then today I was on the way here and God reminded me of a handful of individuals who serve breakfast in the park every Saturday morning. There was a parking spot so I pulled over and tried to find them. Pretty easy when you just follow the hungry…

I met David, Miracle Joe, Michael Scott (he tells me he had the name first), and several others who had a smile on their face and their worldly possessions in their bags. They lined up for a hot breakfast and cold sandwiches. They went through bins of clothing and even a small “library” for a book to read. They brought their bikes and they had them tuned up. They laughed, talked, smiled, and were extremely polite and very grateful.

We finished…I got in my truck and I drove here….my office…where I had to open up my computer and write…to process with you the reader…whoever you are. You see God interrupted me this morning and I just had to share. It’s just one thought. One idea and concept that all of us have to answer. Especially those in the Church of Jesus Christ. You see, in the last 24 hours I have seen both ends of the spectrum. I have seen those that have incredible amounts of money and stuff….and I have seen those that don’t.

And so the question God is having me wrestle with this morning is, “What are you doing with what you have been given?” Don’t get me wrong – I truly believe it is OK to have, but we have to ask ourselves what are we doing with what we have been given. Are we being good stewards with God’s blessings?

Me? I need to continue to get better at this.

Until next time…

Pastor Barry

Tools and Tool Boxes…

As many of you know…and others should be able to figure out…I recently moved. This was no easy task. In fact it was rather difficult. But my family had some great help on both ends of the journey and we could not have done ANY of it by ourselves. Well – maybe – except that we would still be in the process more than we already are because you can put a lot of items into a house. While packing the stuff just kept appearing out of closets, cupboards, and who knows where.

Some things were hard to pack like the drum set for my WII Rock Band Game and other things were easy. Probably the easiest thing to pack was my tool chest. It was my grandfathers and it is mostly loaded with tools from him and my other grandpa.

Both men were “tinkerers” of sorts. One repaired televisions and organized every screw he ever came across into little glass baby food jars. He would mount the lids in such a fashion so that you could screw and unscrew the glass jar from a shelf above his workbench in order to access the contents. Really kinda cool! The other was a mechanic. Technically, he worked for the railroad and was a consultant in overhauling diesel engines. He could bring any engine back to life…no matter if it was a lawnmower, a Corvair that had been sitting in a shed for 40 years, or a huge ocean going container ship.

I have great memories of th0se guys…and when I open my tool chest…it is their hands I see…

But as I mentioned, that tool chest was easy to pack. Close the lid – lock the drawers – and wheel it outside. Unloading was just as easy! And I am glad it was. Because I needed stuff out of it. We needed to unpack boxes and put together beds and hang pictures and….well, you get the point. And the tools I needed were in that chest.

There are a lot of tools in there, which allow me to do a lot of things. There are your standard screw drivers, wrenches, and pliers – but there are also tools that are highly specific and do just one thing. Like the tool that pulls the wheel bearing out of the axel on your car….yeah…I have one of those. Doesn’t do me any good because I never paid attention when my dad and grandpa showed me how to use it. But I have one!

So the other night I sat putting together a bed and I was thinking about the tool I was using and then thinking about all the people that were helping us unpack. People from the church. Each one different. Each one with a different talent. Each one designed to do just the right thing. Paul wrote about this in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 (NLT)

¹²The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. ¹³Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles,* some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.* ¹⁴Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. ¹⁵If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁶And if the ear says, “I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body? ¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything? ¹⁸But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. ¹⁹How strange a body would be if it had only one part! ²⁰Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. ²¹The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.” ²²In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary. ²³And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen, ²⁴while the more honorable parts do not require this special care. So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity. ²⁵This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other. ²⁶If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad. ²⁷All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.

Yep – the moral of this whole post is that we all have a job to do. We have all been designed by God to do something for the Kingdom! What did he design you to do?

Until Next Time…

Pastor Barry

Moving Day…

As I sat in the cab of a moving truck traveling a blistering 30 MPH up several mountain passes today I had a lot of time to think. So I developed a top ten list of things everyone should know when you are moving…

10. No matter how carefully you pack there will always be those last minute items that literally get thrown in the back of the truck.

9. Those last minute items that you threw in will always fall out on your head when you reopen the door.

8. No matter how much tape you buy…it will never be enough.

7. Don’t pack those things that you might possibly need into a spot where they will be unable to reached for that “just in case” moment.

6. When you plan to move prepare yourself to sell countless numbers of items (that weeks before you couldn’t live without) on Craigslist for pennies on the dollar for what you originally paid.

5. Pack all of your remotes in the SAME box!

4. This isn’t necessarily a moving only tip…but when crossing into California from Oregon you will have to stop and they will ask if you have any fruit, which I am sure has a great explanation as to why – but I will just choose to believe that they are hungry.

3. For those long distance moves – the rest area you need….will be closed.

2. Plan for the unexpected.

And the number one tip….

1. When your child has only one pair of pajamas and falls into the bathtub in the hotel remember tips number 2, 7, and 9!

I actually had a more serious post about moving rolling around in my head….but after the event that lead to tip number one happened….

Until Next Time,

Pastor Barry

Childlike Faith…

I absolutely love being a dad! The feeling that I get when I walk in the door to my home and my kids come running is indescribable. I love the hugs and the kisses and the sheer joy I see on their faces! Call me a “glass is half-empty kind of guy” but I’m pretty sure this won’t always be the case. I can already see the difference in which my 21-month old daughter and my nine-year old daughter greet me.

But for now it makes me smile. In fact, as I sit here, I can almost hear each of their voices, and feel each of their arms grabbing around my neck. They love their dad. I know it. I can feel it. And I love it… But When will this enthusiasm stop? Does it have to stop?

I have to ask myself – when was the last time I went running when my dad entered a room? When was the last time I hugged my dad? What changes? Do we become too mature? Too good? Too cool? I suppose it happens in all of our relationships. We become too comfortable and take them for granted… We begin to unconciously think, “This person is always here for me, it’s who they are, they have to be.” Our childlike love and excitement goes away. We grow up. We know more. We become complacent.

Recently, I was reading in Matthew 18 about children. The disciples had asked Jesus about who was the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven and He used a child to answer their question. He brought a little girl (it doesn’t really say girl – but I have girls – so I see this child as a little girl) and I imagine He picked her up and sat her on His lap.

She probably came to Jesus willingly…freely…arms open wide. Perhaps she even gave Him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. If it was my youngest she would have grabbed His face, looked Him square in the eyes, and then dove in with lips puckered for the the sweetest – slobbery kiss a person could hope for.

That image embodies Jesus’ point to the disciples. This is an image of unconditional love, joy, and enthusiasm for a “dad” who loves us and loves that we love Him in return. Jesus uses this image and teaches about a child like faith that is necessary to be great in the Kingdom of Heaven – and necessary to even enter Heaven in the first place.

We have to let go and return to those days of when we ran into the arms of our parents when they entered the room. Those days long before we were embarrassed because we were too old. Long before we were too cool to be seen hugging our dad. Long before we began to take our relationships for granted.

I don’t know…maybe you are reading this today and you have never experienced any of this. Never a parent, never had a good relationship with your parents, or never ran to Jesus with child like faith…but you can. You can absolutely run to Jesus!

I need a hug! I think I’m going to go find my daughters and my wife. Let me encourage you to go and hug someone also. Embrace it, hold it, and use it to remember that our Heavenly Father wants you to run to Him and hug Him too!

Until next time…

Pastor Barry