Refreshing Exhaustion

This Friday at 6am, I leave with my home church to Mexicali for a week. It is a full day of driving straight through to set up a week of partnership ministry with the local churches in the city. Then it will be a long drive back home just in time for the Saturday Easter services at First Cov.  A few nights ago, Tonya and I were chatting about this week and the things which need to get done. She said, "I'm looking forward to you going to Mexicali so you can come back refreshed."

It struck me weird, and I had to respond inquisitively, "You DO know I'm going to come home exhausted, right?"

My wife spoke wisdom...AGAIN. "Yes, you will come home physically exhausted, but you are going to come home refreshed in ministry just like you did last year."

She was and is very right. (obviously! It's a spiritual gift wives have: always-right-ness)

I am reaching a similar threshold I was reaching last year at this time; one that is overwhelming in all the demands of maintaining ministry. The spinning plates are starting to totter. Tonya added, "You're starting to forget things and drop things that just aren't 'you' to drop."

Though there is a lot of work to be done in Mexicali, I can ONLY do the work of Mexicali. Away from my computer. Away from my iPhone. Away from my leadership team (whom I love). Away from the church I serve (and love). Away from my coffee shop office. Away from my meetings. Away from coffees with disgruntled people. Away from...

Yes, we will run our bodies dry and weary in Mexico, but sometimes we need that sort of removed exhaustion to come home refreshed.

Looking forward to it.

Why I am Nervous to Teach The Ragamuffin Gospel

This Sunday I will begin a class I am teaching over the book by Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel. It is my favorite book of all time, and I am strangely nervous to teach about it.

I am nervous because:

1. It is my favorite book. The lesson of recommending your favorite book to someone is one not many have learned. Not everyone is going to have the same experience with the book as you did, face it! I had to learn a while ago to be selective with my excitement for the book recommendation, but I'm not just recommending the book; I am TEACHING it.

2. I don't know how Is it a book study or a class? Can we not keep pretending that everyone actually reads the book in a book study? So the question becomes, "If I am accepting not everyone will read it, should I just teach through it at the risk of repeating what some WILL HAVE read? OR Do I go on pretending they read and make a book study at the risk of everyone looking blankly at the only one who HAS read it...ME?

3. Uneducated people may attend Aristotle said, "The mark of an educated mind is one that is able to entertain a thought without accepting it." Human beings have a tendency to hear one thing they disagree with and throw the baby out with the bathwater. Yes, Brennan Manning is a flawed ragamuffin of a man; he is likely to say some things which aren't perfect, but so do I. So does your senior pastor. So does your favorite author, but those people also write and say many other great things to present Jesus to us.

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If you're in the Sacramento area and are interested in attending the class, it is on Sunday mornings for the next 6 weeks at 11:30a at First Covenant Church.