Monthly Archives: September 2014

The same might be said of many of us – certainly me! We LOVE to complain. Like the people of Israel on their wilderness journey. if we aren’t careful it might be the thing that people most remember about us, too. I certainly do not want to be remembered as a great complainer. Or to have complaint as the defining trait of my character. Complaint excludes the possibility of other things taking center stage –
hope, affirmation, love. It drives out any possibility of gratitude.

Last year I attempted to give up complaining for Lent. Let’s just say I am revisiting this flawed area of my character. Last Sunday I challenged my church to join me in the  21-day Complaint Free Challenge   I offered a basket of simple rubber bands and asked folks to take one and put it on their wrists. When you complain… when you are sarcastic (ouch – this one is where I fall the most)… you move the band to the other wrist. The goal is to change this behavior by not moving the rubber band for 21 days. I have yet to develop a tan-line on either wrist if that tells you how I am doing on week into the challenge.

I believe one of the keys is to replace complaining with something rather than simply removing it from our speech and thought. To speak grace into every situation. To share hope in the face of every challenge. To bless with love every person with whom we interact. And to speak with love about every person whose path crossed ours before this moment.

Yesterday was the thirteenth anniversary of 9/11. The fact that almost anyone can write or say “9/11” is sufficient proof of the enduring effect 9/11/01 has had on our national psyche.

So often we look toward the next disaster, the next catastrophe. Today, the day after such a somber remembrance, I am in need of a eucatastrophe. Today in the light of what sometimes feels like cascading brokenness in the world I need a eucatastrophe.

“Eucatastrophe” appeared in J.R.R. Tolkien’s essay “On Fairy Stories.” It means when the protagonist in a story faces certain doom but is saved in the end from that doom. For Tolkien, the Christian Gospel offers the ultimate eucatastrophe — the Incarnation the eucatastrophe of “human history” and the Resurrection the eucatastrophe of the Incarnation.

I long for eucatastrophe in my life and our world. 9/11 reminds me how broken our world remains – and how insoluble these problems seem. We are about to launch air attacks against ISIL, for instance. The human story doesn’t seem to be one that can end well.

But it does. It will. It must. The hope of the Gospel is more than that my soul will survive into eternity with God. It is that the unfolding and endless catastrophes of human history will end in eucatastrophe.

So this Friday after 9/11 I look for that day, I long for the echoes of its arrival. It will come. It has to.

(This week’s post is my monthly newsletter article for my church’s newsletter. While these articles aren’t always appropriate to my slightly wider reading audience, this one applies to all kinds of organizations as well as our personal journey.)

Like many of you, the weather is often on my mind. And the seasons. As I’ve mentioned a few times I love fall. But we have barely had a summer! Oh it’s been hot a few times (here lately mostly).  But it has been more fall-like than summer-like these past few months. But fall will come soon and relentlessly the season will turn.

How do we know what season it is? We can probably rattle off the signs of the seasons (snow and cold in winter, hot and green in the summer, for instance). Sometimes a single day or even week don’t fit the pattern. 50 degree days in January throw us off the mark, as do 50 degree nights in July. But the pattern of the days and nights… the appearance of the natural world around us… our sense of time and season are enough to assure is we know where we are.
How do we know such things about the church? How do we discern the season in which our church is living? Are we in a season of renewal and growth? Are we in a time of seeking and discerning? Are we in a period of decline and death?

It isn’t as simple as the recurring seasons of the year. Sometimes a single Sunday may make us think “Wow! We are really going places!” Another Sunday – sometimes the next Sunday – leaves us wondering “Wow! How did that happen so poorly?” But we can look at the consistent things (How many are showing up to worship? Who is in our classes and groups and ministries? How are people supporting various ministries with their time, their treasures, their talents? – and others like this).

I don’t have a clear answer myself to what season we are experiencing. But after a few years with you I am starting to ask the questions and wonder. Just as we need to know what season it is to know which clothes to pack away (and which ones to replace or bring out of storage), so the season of our church’s dictates where we should focus our efforts and what we need to do in response to the time and season and circumstances in which we find ourselves.