Andrew Wilson

Sheep peeps

Margaret Feinberg in a recent interview with Catalyst Monthly said, "...the best possible place for a sheep to be is in a flock. If left to its own devices, a sheep will wander off and its fate is predictable. It will be devoured by predators, overindulge or starve to death, or be infected by parasites. The result is always the same: death."

Maybe that's why the good shepherd, Jesus, keeps herding us back into the flock. He knows something that we tend to forget or disregard: that apart from his leadership and his flock it's open season on our souls.
Sometimes I don't want to be around other sheep. Sometimes I want to go and do my own thing. I can think of a million reasons to justify wandering from the flock. But I can think of one really good reason not to do that: I'll die.

Thanks Margaret for the reminder. And thanks Jesus for your leadership and your sheep. They stink and they bleat, but my sheep peeps help keep me alive.

"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me."-Jesus Christ

Holy Spirit

What is the Holy Spirit? This was the first question posed to us a couple of weeks ago during a Life Group conversation and I've been thinking about it ever since.
Is it real or is it merely a relic of religion? Is it something reserved for only the religioulsy pre-disposed people? Is it a magic talisman hidden in the back pockets of believers, used only when trouble arises? What is the Holy Spirit?

Here's where I'm finding through the Bible and through experience: The Holy Spirit is the activity of God in my life and in the world. It's his breath, his influence and his supernatural gift to humanity.
We're instructed to be born of the Spirit, filled with the Spirit, and guided by the Spirit. And we have a promise that if we die and we have the Spirit, we'll be raised by it.
If I'm listening, I can hear what the Spirit's saying to me. If I'm watching, I can witness the effects of the Spirit around me. If I'm courageous, I can speak what the Spirit is saying through me.

What could you hear, see or say with the help of Holy Spirit today?

"And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you."-Romans 8:11

Celebration

Kool and the Gang gave us sage advice: "Celebrate good times, come on!"
At The Journey, we're taking their advice and beginning all of our meetings with celebrations. The fact is that there's too much good that's happening to not celebrate. People who were far from God aren't anymore. They're gathering and experiencing God and becoming or growing as followers of Jesus; that's a big deal. People are connecting to life at The Journey and are serving and growing by offering their time, treasure and talent to Jesus. There's a party goin' on right here.

That isn't to say that we bury our heads in the sand and ignore the stuff that's not so great. But here's what I'm learning: It's easy to complain and focus only on what needs to change, but that invariably leaves me discouraged and inert. But when I focus on what's going right, it gives me the momentum to change what's going wrong.

So what about you? Do you ever pause and reflect on your successes and wins or are you always in "fix-it mode"?

What do you have to party about?

Scab to scar

Have you ever picked a scab? I have. There's just something masochistically gratifying (albeit gross) about peeling a ripe one off, isn't there? We're not supposed to do it because scabbing is a major and integral part of the healing process that our skin undergoes after being wounded; to pick a scab is to subvert that process.
Not only do we short-circuit the healing process, but we put ourselves at risk for becoming infected with bacteria and dying (okay, maybe that last part was a bit of hyperbole, but still, it's not a good practice).

But I've also picked a few scabs that weren't physical; I've picked emotional scabs recently. Prematurely, I've meddled in the healing process that God put in place (healing is always a supernatural occurrence) and exposed a wound that was well on its way to getting better. I do many stupid things, but this one's up there on the charts.

My preferred method of picking? Via conversations. It's not pretty (Have you ever witnessed a pleasant scab-picking?) So I'm going to try and keep my mouth shut from now on when I get the itch. When someone starts talking about stuff from my past that's wounded me, I'm going to refrain from flippantly opening it up for discussion. I'll change the subject, set off a small explosive device, whatever I have to do to guard my scab. (*Note-this isn't to say that all conversations regarding past hurts are injurious--just the ones that don't keep the restorative work of Jesus front & center).

Here's what I'm learning about all of this healing stuff: I know there's going to be a scar--and I'm kind of okay with that. Scars are tangible reminders that what once hurt us, doesn't anymore. But I'll never get a scar, if I don't leave the scab alone.
Scab to scar. It's time to heal. Completely.

"...I am the Lord, who heals you."
Exodus 15:26