“When I meditated on the word Guidance, I kept seeing ‘dance’ at the end of the word. I remember reading that doing God’s will is a lot like dancing.

When two people try to lead, nothing feels right. The movement doesn’t flow with the music, and everything is quite uncomfortable and jerky. When one person realizes that, and lets the other lead, both bodies begin to flow with the music. One gives gentle cues, perhaps with a nudge to the back or by pressing lightly in one direction or another. It’s as if two become one body, moving beautifully. The dance takes surrender, willingness, and attentiveness from one person and gentle guidance and skill from the other.

My eyes drew back to the word Guidance. When I saw ‘G: I thought of God, followed by ‘u’ and ‘i’. “God, ‘u’ and ‘i’ dance.’ God, you, and I dance. As I lowered my head, I became willing to trust that I would get guidance about my life. Once again, I became willing to let God lead.

My prayer for you today is that God’s blessings and mercies be upon you on this day and everyday. May you abide in God as God abides in you. Dance together with God, trusting God to lead and to guide you through each season of your life.

And I Hope You Dance!!!!!!!!”

“Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin’s every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did” (Romans 6:11-16, The Message).

Tonight at Kairos, we celebrated the baptism of four individuals. We believe that none of them were saved by the act of baptism but that each of them chose immersion into the water as a response in obedience to what Jesus has already done in and through them.

While we believe that baptism is an outward symbol of an inward transformation, we also believe that it’s more than just getting wet in a baptistry.

The water is more than just mere water.

The water is a declaration of dying to self and coming alive in Christ. The old adage in baptism holds true — buried with Christ in baptism and raised to walk in newness of life.

We believe that the water represents a surrender to the call of Jesus and a willingness to follow, regardless of the consequences. Even if it means losing our lives. We still believe that you find your life by losing it and you find your most fulfilling life by giving it away.

Most of all, it means that Jesus doesn’t make you a better or more improved you. He makes you brand new. That is the gospel.

“Isn’t this the fast I choose:
To break the chains of wickedness,
to untie the ropes of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free,
and to tear off every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
to bring the poor and homeless into your house,
to clothe the naked when you see him,
and not to ignore your own flesh and blood?” (Isaiah 58:6-7, CSB).

The whole season of Room in the Inn flew by. It felt like almost no time at all had passed. In fact, stepping outside into the chilly drizzly night could have easily led to the conclusion that it was November and not March.

But we wrapped up the 2018-2019 season with a bang. The homeless men got treated to a a place to stay the night, a good meal, good conversations, an ice cream sundae bonanza and, of course, a Bible study.

Tom Woods spoke from Mark 12 about the scribe who asked Jesus what He believed to be the greatest commandment in all of Scripture. Not to trap or test Jesus, as the others had done, but out of sincere and authentic intent.

The answer Jesus gave was to quote the prophet Moses. Love God will your whole being and love your neighbor as yourself. These two are greater than all the sacrifices and offerings combined.

I couldn’t help but think about Isaiah 58. God doesn’t want empty rituals or hollow liturgy. God doesn’t want our religious activities and gatherings.

He wants us to love Him, and we do that first and foremost by how we love others, chiefly those who are the least lovable. He called us to go out to the orphans and the widows, the marginalized and the outcasts.

Room in the Inn has been a safe environment for me in which to serve the homeless and find myself being way more blessed than I could ever hope to bless anyone else.

I’m already counting down the days until next November so I can start Room in the Inn all over again.

“Forgive me for using casual language to compensate for your natural weakness of human understanding. I want to be perfectly clear. In the same way you gave your bodily members away as slaves to corrupt and lawless living and found yourselves deeper in your unruly lives, now devote your members as slaves to right and reconciled lives so you will find yourselves deeper in holy living. In the days when you lived as slaves to sin, you had no obligation to do the right thing. In that regard, you were free. But what do you have to show from your former lives besides shame? The outcome of that life is death, guaranteed. But now that you have been emancipated from the death grip of sin and are God’s slave, you have a different sort of life, a growing holiness. The outcome of that life is eternal life. The payoff for a life of sin is death, but God is offering us a free gift—eternal life through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the Liberating King” (Romans 6:19-23, The Voice).

“I used to spend a lotta time worryin that I was different from other people, even from other homeless folks. Then, after I met Miss Debbie and Mr. Ron, I worried that I was so different from them that we wadn’t ever gon’ have no kind a’ future. But I found out everybody’s different – the same kind of different as me. We’re all just regular folks walkin down the road God done set in front of us. The truth about it is, whether we is rich or poor or somethin in between, this earth ain’t no final restin place. So in a way, we is all homeless – just workin our way toward home” (Denver Moore, Same Kind of Different as Me).

If you’ve read the book, which I have, I can’t emphasize enough how much you need to see the movie based on the book. It stars Greg Kinnear, Renée Zellweger, and Djimon Hounsou and captures beautifully the heart of the book. It delves into the sadder aspects of the story without becoming melodramatic or cliched.

That book, more than anything else, was what really got me involved in the homeless ministry, so if you haven’t read it, do that first. Then see the movie.

It’s officially spring. The calendar tells me, and so do my sinuses.

I think today must have been another high pollen count day, because the inside of my head was feeling it.

I’m pretty sure I had a mild case of hay fever to go with some sneezing and headachyness. It was not my most enjoyable or fun moment ever.

Still, in the grand scheme of things, hay fever is far from the worst that can happen to me. In fact, if it’s the worst thing that happens to me all day, I’d call it a pretty good day.

All I need is to take my Vitamin C and rest. That and the weekend should go a long way toward curing what ails me.

“The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention…. A loving silence often has far more power to heal and to connect than the most well-intentioned words” (Rachel Naomi Remen)

Perhaps the most important thing we bring to another person is the silence in us, not the sort of silence that is filled with unspoken criticism or hard withdrawal. The sort of silence that is a place of refuge, of rest, of acceptance of someone as they are. We are all hungry for this other silence. It is hard to find. In its presence we can remember something beyond the moment, a strength on which to build a life. Silence is a place of great power and healing” (Rachel Naomi Remen).

I originally intended to go with one or the other, but I couldn’t choose. I picked both.

I believe that active listening and welcoming silence are the two best ways we can connect with others. In evangelism, we earn the right to be heard by first listening, not to respond but to understand.

In the story of Job, the best decision his friends made was when they sat and wept with him in the dust. The worst was when they decided to open their mouths and “fix” Job’s problem.

May that be a lesson to us all.

For those out there who are unfamiliar with brackets and all things March Madness, I hope you’ve enjoyed living under your rock.

But for real, this is the best time of the year for all those fanatical college basketball fans. And for the moderate fans out there like me.

This is when the NCAA men’s basketball tournament begins. This is when the crazy reaches epic levels, where anxiety levels peak, and when miracles happen.

You predict each of the 67 games (if you count the play-in games) all the way up to the Final Four and the championship game. Hopefully, you pick more teams right than wrong. Or possibly your bracket is busted after the first day.

Did a 16 seed really beat a 1 seed last year? UMBC (which stands for the University of Maryland, Baltimore County) upset Virginia 74-54. The lowly Retrievers took down the mighty Cavaliers.

Who knows what might happen this year? As last year showed, anything is possible once the games start. You could be in the top 1%. Or your bracket could be dead in the water after the first round.

But that’s why they play the game.

I’ve been loving my journey through the devotional Streams in the Desert this year. Sometimes, it seems to almost speak prophetically to my circumstances.

What I read yesterday was a good word that I’m sure will speak to the hearts of many who yearn for their circumstances to change but who also long to be faithful where they’re planted.

“‘Be thou there till I bring thee word’ (Matt. 2:13).

‘I’ll stay where You’ve put me;
I will, dear Lord, Though I wanted so badly to go;
I was eager to march with the ‘rank and file,’
Yes, I wanted to lead them, You know.
I planned to keep step to the music loud,
To cheer when the banner unfurled,
To stand in the midst of the fight straight and proud,
But I’ll stay where You’ve put me.
I’ll stay where You’ve put me; I’ll work, dear Lord,
Though the field be narrow and small,
And the ground be fallow, and the stones lie thick,
And there seems to be no life at all.
The field is Thine own, only give me the seed,
I’ll sow it with never a fear;
I’ll till the dry soil while I wait for the rain,
And rejoice when the green blades appear;
I’ll work where You’ve put me.
I’ll stay where You’ve put me; I will, dear Lord;
I’ll bear the day’s burden and heat,
Always trusting Thee fully; when even has come
I’ll lay heavy sheaves at Thy feet.
And then, when my earth work is ended and done,
In the light of eternity’s glow,
Life’s record all closed, I surely shall find
It was better to stay than to go;
I’ll stay where You’ve put me.’

‘Oh restless heart, that beat against your prison bars of circumstances, yearning for a wider sphere of usefulness, leave God to order all your days. Patience and trust, in the dullness of the routine of life, will be the best preparation for a courageous bearing of the tug and strain of the larger opportunity which God may some time send you.’

I believe that two days from now on Wednesday, March 20, we will see the first day of spring. Whether we will have actual spring weather on this first day of spring is another matter.

Tennessee has a way of getting our hopes up with promising weather leading into any given season, then delivering some very unseasonal activity on the actual first day of the season. For proof, check back to the last first day of fall or of summer or of any season ever.

I’m hoping with fingers crossed that Wednesday will be a nice sunny day with respectable temps somewhere around the low 70s with no rain and just a few clouds to make things interesting.

Although my favorite of the seasons will always be fall, I am glad to see spring arriving after a very wet and underperforming winter. Bring on the May flowers, I say!