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Chapter-a-Day

Outcomes

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Outcomes (CaD 1 Cor 2) – Wayfarer

We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.
1 Corinthians 2:6 (NIV)

I have found myself surrounded by some rather interesting and challenging circumstances in recent months on a number of different fronts in life. There is always a challenge when navigating diverse human temperaments, personalities, motivations, and conflicts in an effort to getting people unified and moving in a positive direction.

One of the things that has struck me as I’ve been meditating on these different circumstances is the differences between wisdom and folly. In some cases, I’m a bit further down life’s road than many of those I’m working with. There is a wisdom that comes with age and experience that others have simply yet to learn and develop. I’ve noticed that it’s easy for me to see things that others don’t as it relates to foreseeing the outcomes that particular choices, words, or courses of action will elicit. I can see a larger picture of what will be profitable and productive, and what will only stoke more problems and complications. Hopefully, I can be effective in influencing people toward the former while avoiding the latter.

At the same time, I have been faced with other circumstances that involve individuals my own age or older. Despite having traversed relatively the same amount of life’s road, these individuals appear to have learned nothing from their respective journeys. Their lives are a train wreck of perpetual poor choices and a refusal to learn from the painful consequences they’ve brought on themselves. There is little or no self-awareness, and appears to be zero desire to actually make any kind of meaningful positive change. At this stage of life’s journey, it’s a pretty good bet that tragedy will continue to follow them.

In today’s chapter, Paul continues to lay down a foundation for addressing the challenging circumstances among Jesus’ followers in the city of Corinth. Like the circumstances I have found myself navigating, the believers in Corinth were experiencing conflict, differences in motivations, differences in personalities, poor choices, foolishness, and unwillingness to change. Paul pleads that what is needed is God’s wisdom, which he points out is not like the wisdom the Greek sophists at the Corinthian temples espoused.

As I meditated on all of this in the quiet this morning, I found myself thinking about the outcomes Jesus says He wants from me as a disciple. I’ve observed that many people who call themselves Christians seem to have two primary outcomes in mind as it relates to being a Christian. First and foremost is making it into heaven. Second is to maintain some kind of social perception of moral goodness.

My perpetual journey through the Great Story, however, (of which this chapter-a-day post/podcast plays a part) reveals that when I made Christ Lord of my life then heaven was in the bag, and part of the surrender to His Lordship was becoming brutally honest about my moral failings instead of trying to hide them. If heaven is in the bag and I no longer need to pretend like I don’t have my own shit, what are the outcomes of this life journey that I am reaching for as a disciple? I discovered that what Jesus really asks of me and all those who follow Him is spiritual maturity. He wants me to grow up, grow wiser, learn from my mistakes, increase my spiritual knowledge, deepen my relationship with God and others, and to continue pushing further up and further in towards God’s Kingdom while letting go of this world and the things of this world.

So, here I am in the quiet once again, reading the Great Story, meditating on the daily challenges I’m navigating, praying for more wisdom, and attempting to be spiritually fruitful in my thoughts, words, actions, and relationships. My hope is that I speak “a message of wisdom among the mature but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.“

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Chapter-a-Day

The “Uh-Oh” Moment

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The "Uh-Oh" Moment (CaD 1 Sam 14) – Wayfarer

Jonathan said, “My father has made trouble for the country.”
1 Samuel 14:29a (NIV)

Have you ever been in a situation in which you suddenly realize that the person in charge has no business being the person in charge? I call it the “uh-oh” moment, as in “Uh-oh! If this is the person in charge, then all of us are in deep Shinola.”

There is an amazing scene in the mini-series Band of Brothers, based on the true story of a paratrooper company preparing for D-Day in World War II. Their company commander had turned them into one of the best units in the entire army, but he was a poor leader in the field. His men had their “Uh-Oh” moment as they contemplated jumping behind enemy lines with him in charge. They had no respect for him, and they knew that he would get them all killed. At the risk of being court-martialed and shot for committing treason, they wrote letters refusing to serve in combat under their commander. They were dressed down and punished, but the letters had their intended effect. The company commander was reassigned and a truly gifted leader rose up within the company to replace him.

In today’s chapter, the author of 1 Samuel introduces two important themes in the story. First, we find that Saul’s son, Jonathan, is a courageous warrior, has qualities that his own father lacks, and the young man seems to have his act together. It is Jonathan who, by faith, acts on his own to attack the Philistines and unleash the panic that ultimately leads to Israel’s victory. This is contrasted with his father, Saul’s, own erratic and poor leadership. This is the other overarching theme of the chapter.

Saul starts to seek God’s guidance but then fears that waiting on a word from God could lose him the advantage so he acts on his own. Later, he follows through with seeking God’s guidance but then gets angry and impatient when God doesn’t answer. Saul foolishly makes his men swear an oath not to eat until the end of the fighting with the Philistines. As the battle does on all day, his men become famished and weary. Jonathan, who wasn’t even present when the men swore the oath, eats some fresh honey he finds in the field. When his fellow soldiers tell him about the oath his father made everyone swear, even Jonathan has an “Uh-Oh” moment as he realizes that his father’s leadership has only served to hurt their cause. When it becomes clear that Jonathan ate the honey, Saul acts to have his own son killed for insubordination. Jonathan’s fellow soldiers rise up against this injustice and demand that Saul refrain from carrying out the sentence. They recognize that it was Jonathan, not Saul, to whom they owe a debt of gratitude for the victory that day.

These early episodes in Saul’s career as Israel’s first king only foreshadow what is to come. Along my life journey, I’ve learned that leadership at all levels requires a certain tension between confidence and humility, between decisiveness and wisdom. Every leader makes mistakes, but I have observed a big difference between those who learn from their mistakes and those who are incapable or unwilling to do so. I read one commentator this morning who described Saul as an ego-centric leader. I thought that hit the nail on the head.

As I wrap up another work week this morning, I can’t help but once again think about my own leadership. I have been honored to hold many positions of leadership along life’s road. Here in the quiet, I can quickly think of times that others may have had “Uh-Oh” moments as I failed and made some serious mistakes. However, I’ve done my best to learn from those mistakes and not repeat them. Failure is a powerful teacher if one has the wisdom to be taught.

I’m afraid we’re going to find out that Saul was a poor student.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Not Earth to Heaven, but Heaven to Earth

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But our citizenship is in heaven.
Philippians 3:20a (NIV)

Since last September our local gathering of Jesus’ followers has been engaged in a year-long study of the book of Acts, which starts as a history of the early Jesus Movement. The second half of the book, however, is really a history of Paul. While history records that what remained of the Twelve original disciples gave their lives in service to advancing Jesus’ message to the known world, the latter half of Acts does not mention them. The author, Luke, traveled with Paul and his focus lies there.

In case you didn’t know it, that’s why I’ve been blogging through all of Paul’s letters in, roughly, chronological order.

One of the discoveries I’ve made in my study this year is the degree to which Paul was focused on Jesus’ mission to bring God’s Kingdom to Earth.  “Your Kingdom come,” Jesus taught His disciples to pray. “Your will be done on Earth, just as it is in heaven.” This isn’t a minor point. It’s a transformative shift in paradigm.

As I look back on almost forty years of my spiritual journey the emphasis I’ve been taught by teachers and authors and commentators has been on getting to heaven. We want people to walk the aisle, get their ticket punched and their reservation made in eternity. That accomplished, we encourage spiritual growth, but in practice only a few really take the whole thing seriously on a day-t0-day basis. Most go about life without giving it much thought in daily life. But no matter, the important thing is that the sinner’s prayer was dutifully said as a child back in church camp. Your fire insurance policy is paid up. The church can breathe a sigh of relief if you get hit by a Mack truck later today. (In case you didn’t know it, Mack trucks have been unexpectedly sending people to untimely deaths in hypothetical Christian scenarios for many decades).

In today’s chapter Paul certainly has his sights on eternity. He talks about being called heavenward. He tells the Philippian believers “our citizenship is in heaven.” His emphasis, however, isn’t on getting there. His emphasis in today’s chapter is on the work in his here-and-now, Level Three journey on Earth. I paraphrase:

  • Rejoice today in your circumstances (Paul is writing from prison).
  • Watch out for those who would lead you in the wrong direction.
  • I’m giving everything I’ve got, today, to advance the Kingdom (on Earth).
  • I’m approaching everything in this Level Three earthly journey with a Level Four eternal perspective.
  • I’m following and suffering to live out Jesus’ teaching and calling.
  • There’s more to do. I’m not waiting for it. I’m pressing into it every day in every way.
  • I’m not sitting back and waiting to die, I’m doing everything I can right now.

This morning I find myself reexamining my entire life and faith journey. Mental adherence to the right set of beliefs, a muttered rote prayer, a membership certificate, or a religious habit of Sunday attendance were what Jesus’ message was about, but that’s largely been the message that I think I’ve unwittingly lived out in too many ways. I have to confess that bringing the Kingdom of Heaven here to Earth hasn’t been where my focus has been. I regret that.

Well, as Paul wrote in today’s chapter: “forgetting what lies behind, straining toward what is ahead.” I’m getting ready to head into a full day of client meetings. I don’t want to leave the Kingdom in my hotel room once I publish this post. I want to take the Kingdom with me into every meeting, conversation, word, relationship, and action.

Random Thoughts, Wayfarer's Journal

Reflections on 10 Years of Blogging

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Today is my 10th anniversary blogging. On March 26th, 2006 I set up a free blog in three easy steps and wrote the following simple post:

It’s sunday morning and the house is getting ready for church. Why is it that the whole household can be up, ready and out the door by 8:00 Monday thru Friday, but  on Sunday you can’t make it to church on time by 11:00? <sigh> One of life’s little mysteries.

That was the beginning of my journey. Ten years and 3,412 blog posts later, I’m still going. I am not, by most people in the blogosphere’s standards, the definition of success. I haven’t made a fortune. My number of subscribers remains very meager. I have about 240 subscribers through WordPress and a reach that extends to a couple thousand people through Facebook and Twitter. On a typical day my blog gets about 150-200 views.

On this 10th anniversary I’ve been looking back and reflecting on what I’ve learned in my blogging experience. Here are a few thoughts:

  • Know your motivation. My blog has always had a very simple motivation. I just want to write about my life journey. I want to record my thoughts and experiences on different subjects. I want to share what’s going on with family and friends. As time has gone on I realize that my blog serves as a diary and a record. It will be an accessible archive for children, grandchildren and future generations of my experiences and my heartfelt thoughts. I have come to accept that my blog will never generate tons of subscribers simply because not that many people know me or are interested in my vacation pictures.
  • Know your content focus. Your motivation determines your content. The vast majority of my posts over the past decade have been my chapter-a-day posts. If I was really trying to establish my blog as an inspirational of devotional blog I would center my blog on those posts and reserve my personal journal, theatre, and photography posts elsewhere. My motivation, however, is for my blog to be a repository of my personal thoughts and experiences. My chapter-a-day posts are simply a record of my thoughts in my own daily quiet time. I’m not trying to preach to anyone or market myself as an author. I’m just sharing my daily, personal thoughts after reading a chapter of the Bible. My blog is a wide-angle lens on my life and it includes all kinds of different posts. A blogging expert would tell me that my wide range limits my audience, but my motivation has never been to build a big audience. I just want to express myself.
  • Just write. According to a NYTimes article, 95% of blogs are abandoned. I’ve known many who have started a blog, but after a post or two they walk away from it just like the Ab Cruncher they purchased ten years ago and used twice. I would argue that most people stop blogging because they aren’t really motivated, they struggle to know what they want to say. I think many people get discouraged that the world does not beat a path to their URL. Blogging requires a certain amount of fortitude. You’re going to write a lot of crap that no one wants to read. Keep writing. Post regularly. Be content with a few followers. The first six years of my blog I averaged about 15-20 views a day. It’s only in the past few years that it’s grown ten-fold. I’ve come to accept that blogging is about the journey, not the destination.
  • You never know what’s going to resonate. I have written a lot of really great posts, at least I thought they were profound. Virtually no one reads them. They never “get legs.” Then, I’ll post a random thought hastily typed and with little consideration and it will start to generate all sorts of traffic. I’ve given up trying to judge or prognosticate.
  • The rewards are not what I thought they’d be. I will confess that I, like most aspiring bloggers, have pipe dreams of my blog becoming wildly popular. I regularly talk myself off that ledge and laugh at myself. I then remind myself of everything I’ve written in this post thus far. The rewards I’ve reaped from my blogging journey are not what I expected, but I consider them to be priceless:
    • I’ve become a better writer. When I go back and read some of my chapter-a-day posts from the early years I regularly cringe. They were so short. The thoughts are undeveloped. Ugh! The contrast, however, serves to remind me that writing 3,412 posts is going to make me a better writer. I value that.
    • I’ve met some really great people. From my early blogging mentor, Mike Sansone, to people like Terry, Samantha, Jonathan, Michael, and David. My blog has opened up opportunities at relationships and networking I might otherwise have never had.
    • I have built an online personal reference source. What year was it that we took that trip to Cooperstown? Do you remember what year we performed Much Ado About Nothing? My blog makes it much easier to find definitive answers. Trivial, perhaps, but I value it.
    • I’m leaving a legacy. Those most close to me, my family and my friends, will have a record of my life experiences and my thoughts that will live beyond me. I sometimes think of my love of family history and how much I wish I had a journal of my great-great-grandfather to learn what life was like for him, what he thought, and what he felt. Perhaps I will have a great-great grandson or granddaughter who will appreciate my little blog. Maybe I’ll have the opportunity to have a positive impact on their lives.
    • I occasionally make a difference in someone’s day. Every once in a while I’ll get a message or an e-mail saying something like, “Thanks. I needed your post today.” Rarely do I get to know how or why. It’s nice to know, though. I’m grateful when people tell me, and it helps motivate me to keep going.

Thanks to those of you who follow along on this journey. Thanks to those who stop by now and then. Thanks especially to Wendy and Kevin R. who regularly discuss, respond, and encourage. Here’s to the next decade!

Chapter-a-Day

A New Appreciation of Aged Widsom

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bodishbaughsNever speak harshly to an older man,but appeal to him respectfully as you would to your own father. 1 Timothy 5:1 (NLT)

This past weekend, Wendy and I attended a Journey to Wholeness conference at our church along with our kids Taylor and Clayton. The conference was led by a couple, Connely and Signa Bodishbaugh, who hail from Alabama and are both in their 70’s. They brought a team of people with them. Among them was a pastor from Texas, Tommy, who was also in his 70’s. I was blown away by the collective wisdom among them.

We all commented during the weekend how listening to Connely, Signa, and Tommy was like listening to a wise grandparent giving you sage advice. Though capable teachers, there was no flash or polish of gifted orators. They simply spoke softly and sincerely, and like wise elders with much to share they spoke at great length. Wendy commented to me yesterday morning as we discussed the conference that she felt the spiritual authority held by those who have earnestly followed Jesus for decades.

I thought of our conference and our teachers as I read Paul’s advice to be respectful and honoring of our elders. I’m having trouble easily articulating all that I learned and experienced this weekend, and I find myself pondering many questions this morning. In a culture given to valuing “new and improved” I wonder if we are quickly losing sight of the worth of wisdom and experience. When the world clamors ceaselessly for the “next generation” of gadgets, apps, and devices, I question if we are losing sight of the value of generations past. I enter the week filled with a new sense of life and purpose. I am grateful for a heart and head full to overflowing with the wisdom and insights I received. I’m convicted to honor and listen to those who’ve journeyed before me. I’m praying that as my own journey continues I might have opportunity to share wisdom with those who follow behind.

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Chapter-a-Day

A Teacher’s Love

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GDR "village teacher" (a teacher tea...
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Oh, my dear children! I feel as if I’m going through labor pains for you again, and they will continue until Christ is fully developed in your lives.. Galatians 4:7 (NLT)

Several years ago my mother was greeting at church and a woman asked her if she was Tom Vander Well’s mother. “I am,” my mother answered. The woman told my mother that she had been my first grade teacher and she wanted my mother to say hello to me. I was blown away to know that Mrs. Avery would remember me after all those years. I loved her. She changed my life by giving me a love for school and for learning. I made a point of visiting her a few weeks later to tell her that and to thank her. Sitting in her living room, she pulled out my old class photo and began naming each student and talking about each one as if we were the previous year’s class. When she told me that she prayed for each of her students, I wasn’t surprised.

I’ve been teaching a class this fall on creativity. It’s been several years since I’ve taught, and I’ve been amazed to remember how intensely I feel for those in my class. In my morning quiet times I find myself thinking of each one, naming them individually and praying for them. During the week I feel concern. I wonder how their week is going and what God is doing in their lives through the assignments and material.

I identified with Paul when in today’s chapter he described his feelings of responsibility for those he taught in Galatia as labor pains. On one hand it seems a bit of an odd metaphor because, face it, neither Paul nor I can really understand true labor pains. I think Paul used the metaphor because as a teacher you realize that something is being birthed in your students. There are new thoughts, new perceptions, and there is new life emerging when God’s Spirit is at work. And that is the key. God and the students are doing that hard work. I’m just a facilitator and conduit. Nevertheless, when I’m involved in the facilitation of that process, I experience a love and commitment to those in my charge.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day 1 Chronicles 18

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Leadership Thus David ruled over all of Israel. He ruled well, fair and evenhanded in all his duties and relationships. 1 Chronicles 18:14 (MSG)

This past weekend my dad and I were road tripping down to the lake with my wife. In the process of our conversation, my dad mentioned that he’d run into my Junior High school Principal who had asked about me. When I was younger, I had positions of student leadership in school. But, I wasn’t the greatest leader in the world. I thought that being in a position of leadership meant lording it over others, getting what you want, and doing what was in your best interest. Even though it was part of the journey that led to my relationship with Christ, I look back on those years with a sense of shame for my motivations and actions.

“If you see him again,” I told my dad, “Tell him I’m sorry for being such an obnoxious little twerp.”

I thought about that when I read the description of David’s leadership in today’s chapter. What a great description to have recorded through history of your leadership. What a great benchmark to strive for in my leadership positions in family, church, community and business: “To rule well, fair and evenhanded in all my duties and relationships.”

Today, I’m thinking about my current positions of leadership, and doing some evaluation.

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and lumaxart