Buyer"s remorse

“[Teddy Roosevelt] danced, just as you’d expect him to dance if you knew him.  He hopped.”- Doris Kearns Goodwin, The Bully Pulpit 

As John Ortberg continues Chapter 6 of All the Places to Go, he writes that hopping is something we do with our whole selves.  Even adults hop in moments of great joy.  Pastor Ortberg exhorts us:

“If you’re going through an open door, don’t limp across the threshold.  Hop.”

However, a major reason for our failure to go through open doors in a wholehearted manner is buyer’s remorse- because making key spiritual decisions requires high effort, high responsibility, and high commitment.  While having second thoughts is an inescapable part of walking through open doors, it s neither fatal nor final.  It is important that we recognize that apprehension is part of making difficult decisions and that “having peace about it” is not the ultimate criterion for going through open doors.

Often we excuse our capitulation to fear or laziness with what John describes as one of the worst, over-spiritualized traps: “I just don’t feel peace about it.”  Pastor Ortberg notes that the sequence we see in the Bible is quite different: calling, abject terror, decision to obey, big problems, more terror, second thoughts, repeat several times, deeper faith.

We need to go through open doors with all our heart.  We need to hop.

Today’s question: How often have you demonstrated buyer’s remorse by second-guessing your decisions?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Discerning wholeheartedness”

 

 

Buyer"s remorse

Crossing a threshold

“It’s better to go through the wrong door with your best self than the best door with your wrong self.”- John Ortberg

In Chapter 6 (“How to Cross a Threshold”) of All the Places to Go, John Ortberg observes that it’s good for us to choose our doors carefully.  But when we decide to go- go!  Although we’re not in charge of which doors God will present to us throughout our lives or what is behind any door, we are in charge of one dynamic- how we will respond when a door is opened.

Pastor Ortberg notes that once we make our door choice, often we’re tempted to obsess whether or not we chose the right door.  To compound the problem, this often happens when such obsession is least helpful- when we’re frustrated or depressed with our chosen door.  We falsely compare the best imagined aspect of Choice B with the worst case scenario of Choice A.

We need to recognize that there is no script for how things would have gone with Plan B or how things will go with Plan A.  Stewing over our decision robs us (a) of the ability to see the small doors God sets before us each day and (b) of the spiritual qualities we need to find life with God in the present moment.

John concludes that when we’re crossing a threshold, we must throw ourselves into this new open-door season “with great enthusiasm and prayer and hope and energy.”

Today’s question: How often have you found yourself stewing about your choice after crossing a threshold?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Buyer’s remorse”

Crossing a threshold

The ultimate door

“That their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and knowledge of God’s mystery, which is in Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”- Colossians 2:2-3

John Ortberg concludes Chapter 5 of All the Places to Go with the eighth way God’s wisdom can lead us to, and help us through, open doors we encounter.

8.  The ultimate door.  Pastor Ortberg writes that Biblical wisdom literature recognizes that wise human decisions have limits.  In the Bible wisdom is much more than life management.

The apostle Paul uses images in Colossians 2:2-3 that describe wisdom in the Old Testament.  Paul then applies these images to Jesus.  Wisdom has come down to earth.  At Jesus’ time, the Israelites knew their problem was Rome.  According to their limited human thinking, they had three options:

1.  Door #1- overthrow the Romans in hatred (Zealots)

2.  Door #2-withdraw in contempt (Essenes)

3.  Door #3- collaborate with the Romans (Sadducees)

Jesus saw an alternative, sacrificial love and resurrection power- the ultimate door, as John describes:

“Wisdom, thank God, is far more than common sense and practical advice and navigating life safely and well.  Wisdom bets it all on God, dies on a cross, and gets resurrected on the third day.  Wisdom is alive today and can walk with me through the doors I face.”

Today’s question:  How have you grown in wisdom following your vocation loss?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Crossing a threshold”

The ultimate door

Failure tolerance

Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken.  At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.  The jailer work up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped.  But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself!  We are all here!”- Acts 16:26-28

In today’s blog, John Ortberg discusses the seventh way God’s wisdom can lead us to/through open doors.

7.  Test, experiment, and learn failure tolerance.  Pastor Ortberg states that while God does have guidance for a particular decision, He doesn’t have guidance for every decision.  And sometimes God’s guidance is not so much about what He wants to do through us as what He wants to do in us.

John observes that discerning open doors does not equate with guaranteed success.  When God called Jeremiah (the weeping prophet) and John the Baptist to walk through open doors, those open doors led to enormous difficulty, not external reward.

We learn through failure.  Courage and risk-taking are not developed through failure avoidance.  In Acts 16, Paul’s clarity on his life’s purpose enabled him to open spiritual doors for others, as John states:

“Paul chooses the greater door, even when it looks like failure.”

Today’s question: Has failure avoidance been an issue for you following your vocation loss?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “The ultimate door”

Failure tolerance

Why am I still here?

“The way of a fool is right in  his own eyes. but a wise man listens to advice.”- Proverbs 12:15

John Ortberg continues his discussion of ways (five and six) God’s wisdom can lead us to and help us through open doors we encounter.

5.  Pray the Lloyd’s Prayer.  Pastor Ortberg states that things happen when we begin to lay our problems out before the Lord.  When an elderly shoe salesman named Lloyd suffered a serious heart attack, doctors told him he should have died.  That prompted Lloyd to pray the question. “Why am I still here?”

The author notes that the truth of the kingdom of God is written on our hearts.  We were made for the open door.

6.  Ask some wise people to help you.  John writes that “everybody needs a door-selection committee.”  We all need wise counsel, because there’s a fool inside each one of us.  As the life of King Solomon testifies, the battle for wisdom is unending.

Left to our own devices, we tend to miss doors because (a) we fail to consider the full range of options God has before us or (b) we suffer from confirmation bias-seeking information that confirms our opinion rather than looking for the unvarnished truth.

We need to associate with Christians who love and care for us, are trustworthy, and exhibit good judgment.

Today’s question: How would you answer Lloyd’s prayer question- Why am I still here?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Failure tolerance”

 

Why am I still here?

What"s your problem?

“Having fewer problems is not living.  It’s dying.”- Ichak Adizes

Today John Ortberg discusses the fourth way God’s wisdom can lead us to, as well as help us through, open doors we encounter.

4.  What’s your problem?  Pastor Ortberg observes that each of us will be defined by our biggest problem: “Your identity is defined by the problem you embrace.”

John adds that what we need is a God-sized problem, because when God calls people He calls them to face a problem.  However, there is a standard word for the condition of truly being problem-free.  That word is dead.

When John asks the question, “What’s your problem?” he really means, “Do you have a problem worth of your best energies, worthy of your life?”  The author states that we don’t grow by avoiding problems.  The real sign of growth is our ability to handle larger and more interesting problems.

Followers of Jesus purposefully embrace problems.  It’s part of discerning what God’s will is for our lives.  Pastor Ortberg notes:

“Very often a sense of calling comes when people begin to pay attention to what moves their hearts.”

For Moses, it was Pharaoh’s oppression and enslavement of the Israelites.  For David, it was Goliath’s taunts.  There are many broken walls in this world.  Which one is breaking your heart?

Today’s question: What is your response to the opening quote by Ichak Adizes?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Why am I still here?”

What"s your problem?

The right course of action

“Whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all.”- Galatians 6:10 (NRSV)

“Never try to choose the right course of action in the wrong frame of mind.”- John Ortberg

John Ortberg continues his discussion of some ways God’s wisdom can lead us to, as well as help us through, open doors we encounter.

2.  Practice on small doors.  Pastor Ortberg cautions us not to wait to ask for wisdom until we’re facing a major decision.  Practicing on small doors develops our ability to choose wisely when big decisions come.  Plus, small door opportunities are everywhere.  John concludes:

“Choosing doors always involves a process: I recognize opportunity, identify options, evaluate, choose, and learn.”

3.  Allow time and energy for big decisions.  Pastor Ortberg states that one reason why “finding God’s will for my life” is so problematic is that we’re overwhelmed by the many choices we must make:

“We think having more choices means more freedom, and more freedom means better living.  But having too many choices does not produce liberation, it produces paralysis.”

Open door people seek simplicity in their lives so that their finite supply of willpower is saved for the most important decisions.  John adds that wise people shepherd their choosing energy well and never make important decisions unless they’re experiencing “the peace of God, which transcends all[human] understanding.”- Philippians 4:7

Today’s question: How have you increased your awareness of small door opportunities?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “What’s your problem?”

 

The right course of action

The place where you are

Today John Ortberg begins his discussion of eight ways God’s wisdom can lead us to, as well as help us through, open doors we encounter- as found in Chapter 5 of All the Places to Go.

1.  Stop waiting for a spontaneous outburst of passion.  Andy Chan, who heads up the Office of Personal and Career Development at Wake Forest University, says that one of the greatest stumbling blocks for young adults is the illusion that if they just could discover their passion, every day of their working life would be saturated with effortless, nonstop motivation.

No one’s life lives up to this illusion.  To believe this illusion leaves us mad at God and frustrated with ourselves.  David Hubbard, president of Fuller Theological Seminary, once said students had the misconception that his life was filled with glamorous, inspiring moments.  In reality, most of what Dr. Hubbard did “involved the consistent, plodding progress of one task following another.”  All together these tasks added up to wonderful work.

John states that it is an essential need of our soul that we believe in the significance of our contributions.  As he explains, however, we need to put passion in its proper perspective:

“Don’t wait for passion to lead you somewhere you’re not.  Start by bringing passion to the place where you are.”

Today’s question: How can you bring passion to the place where you are?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “The right course of action”

The place where you are

Seeking Lady Wisdom

Making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding.”- Proverbs 2:2

John Ortberg continues Chapter 5 of All the Places to Go by noting that as we go through doors, we find the person we’ve become on the other side of those doors.  Pastor Ortberg adds that the Bible has a word for those who choose doors well- wise.  This type of wisdom isn’t equivalent to having a high IQ or advanced education degrees.  In the Bible, wisdom is the art of living well and the ability to make great decisions.

John states that wisdom is the greatest determining factor between people who flourish in life and those who don’t.  The Israelites loved wisdom so much they personified it, speaking of wisdom as the most wonderful person in the world- Lady Wisdom.  The Israelites also understood wisdom was more than successfully navigating life in human terms.  The author summarizes:

“In other words, Lady Wisdom is a poetic expression of the wisdom of God.  Where wisdom is, somehow, God is.”

The rest of Chapter 5 will involve looking at eight ways God’s wisdom can lead us to, as well as help us through,the open doors we encounter.

In the next blog, Pastor Ortberg will discuss the illusion that if we could just discover our passion, every day of our working life will be filled with effortless, nonstop motivation.

Today’s question: How has the Holy Spirit helped you grow in wisdom during your desert, land between time?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “The place where you are”

Seeking Lady Wisdom

Decidophobia

“If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you.”- James 1:5 (NRSV)

In Chapter 5 (Door #1 or Door #2) of All the Places to Go, John Ortberg tackles the question of choosing the right door.  For example, when facing prolonged adversity, we may wonder whether God wants us to grow by persevering in our difficult situation or whether God wants us to leave because He’s concerned about our happiness.

Pastor Ortberg states that what often drives us is our state of great distress.  When we’re filled with anxiety, it’s tempting to look for a guarantee of future outcomes that removes the responsibility of decision-making from our shoulders, as opposed to seeking God’s will.  As John phrases our temptation: “God has to tell me what to do for I am in great distress.”

Princeton philosopher Walter Kaufmann coined the word decidophobia to describe our fear of making decisions.  We don’t want to be wrong and decisions wear us out.  Because King Saul really didn’t want God’s will, his prayers went unanswered and he consulted the medium at Endor.  While superstition seeks to use the supernatural for our purposes, faith surrenders to God’s purposes.

John emphasizes that prayer is closely associated with seeking and discerning open doors because it’s our primary means of communication with God.  The author concludes:

“If I’m facing a choice and I want to find God’s will for my life, I don’t begin by asking which choice is God’s will for my life.  I need to begin by asking for wisdom.”

Today’s question: Are you seeking to use the supernatural for your purposes or are you surrendered to God’s purposes?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Seeking Lady Wisdom”

 

Decidophobia

Standing at the door

“Listen!  I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.”- Revelation 3:20 (NRSV)

Today John Ortberg concludes his presentation of ten common myths about doors in Chapter 4 of All the Places to Go.

9.  God is so powerful and omniscient that he could never empathize with my angst over closed doors.  Over a century ago William Holman Hunt created a painting showing the figure of a single man standing outside a small home he wants to enter, knocking at the door.  It’s unclear if there’s anyone inside to open the door.

Every human being has been given the door to their own heart by God, but God won’t force Himself in.  God doesn’t just open doors, He stands knocking at closed doors.  If the most rejected person in history is patiently standing at the door and knocking, how can we give up?

10.  Some doors are so closed, not even God can do anything about them.  Pastor Ortberg notes that locked doors are God’s specialty.  If God can open the heavy door of Jesus’ sealed tomb, no circumstantial door is closed to him.  John encourages:

“The doors of our lives are not closed to God.  He has the power to enter into our circumstances and grace us with his presence.”

Today’s question: Which of the ten myths have been most problematic for you?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Decidophobia”

Standing at the door

Counter- factual thinking

“Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you.”- Psalm 32:9

John Ortberg presents common myths seven and eight about doors, as found in Chapter 4 of All the Places to Go.

7.  God can never force me through a door I don’t like.  In the Bible, Pharaoh, Saul, Jeremiah, and Jonah all experienced the fallacy of this myth.  Conversely, Balaam wanted to travel to Moab, but God used Balaam’s donkey to prevent his passage.

Pastor Ortberg observes that the psalmist distinguishes between two forms of guidance.  The type of guidance appropriate for mature persons is based upon reason and choice.  The “bit and bridle” approach uses pressure and pain to force compliance.  People are forced to address what they’ve been refusing to acknowledge all along.  John concludes: “Don’t wait for the pain of life to force you through a door that wisdom calls you to choose now.”

8.  If I have chosen the wrong door, I have missed “God’s will for my life”, and will have to settle for second best.  Social scientists refer to this as “counter- factual thinking”.  When we don’t like the outcome of one decision we obsess over what might have happened in an alternative hypothetical scenario.  This is an example of worldly sorrow.  The opposite, godly sorrow, creates energy and is filled with hope that God even can use the wrong road to bring us to the right place.

Today’s question: What Bible verses fill you with hope to defeat counter- factual thinking? Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Standing at the door”

Counter- factual thinking

Constraints on God

Today John Ortberg discusses common myths five and six about doors in Chapter 4 of All the Places to Go.

5.  There is always a right door for every decision.  Pastor Ortberg quips that we’ll never make it past breakfast if we buy into this myth.  When we wear spiritual blinders, we have tunnel vision and fail to look at all our options.  Bishop J. Brian Bansfield offers these words of advice when we fret that we don’t know what God wants us to do:

“Actually, there are eighteen things that God would be very happy if you chose. . . . There are six billion people in the world.  You’re telling me that God looked at you and said, ‘There is only one thing that you can do in your life, I know it and you have to guess it or else?’  Could it be that you are putting your constraints on God?”

John notes a significant difference between the words perfect (unblemished excellence) and perfectionism (moral obsessive-compulsive disorder).  We are called to be perfect.  There is no one right way to make a person or a single right door for every decision.  God gives us choices because choices develop our character.

6.  If you want something bad enough, God has to open a door so I can get it.  Johns succinct response: “Nope.  He doesn’t.”

Today’s question: How have you place constraints on God following your vocation loss?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Counter-factual thinking”

 

Constraints on God

Braced for the future

“Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”- Colossians 2:6-7

“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”- Confucius

My freshman year at Luther High School South in Chicago brought new academic as well as orthodontic challenges.  Throughout my grade school years my front teeth angled outward so severely that using them to bite an apple was futile.  Additionally, after my remaining baby teeth were pulled, a 1/4″- 1/2″ gap existed between my upper/lower canines and molars.  Incremental tightenings during the next several years straightened my front teeth and eliminated the gap (finished product on display in senior picture).  The change was so dramatic that my orthodontist once took my before/after molds to an orthodontic convention.  I vividly remember the day my braces came off and I was fitted with a retainer.  On my way home I made one purchase at the neighborhood IGA- a pack of Adam’s Sour Orange gum!

Those small, imperceptible adjustments transformed the alignment of my teeth, anchoring them in place.  I was braced for the future through consistent application of orthodontic techniques.  As Proverbs 21:5 (The Message) states: “Careful planning puts you ahead in the long run; hurry and scurry puts you farther behind.”

Jeff Manion devotes Chapter 14 of The Land Between to the concept of incremental growth, defined as the “kind of gradual growth [that] often occurs as a result of a consistent spiritual diet accompanied by a responsive heart.”  Such gradual growth is capable of producing powerful life changes.  Incremental growth:

1.  works to fend off spiritual drift

2.  steadily aligns our hearts with God’s heart

3.  enables us to respond to God’s transformational work with trust and cooperation forged through daily obedience

When the crashing waves of vocation loss threaten to sweep us away, these gradual changes in our faith sustain and transform us, as Pastor Manion writes:

“It is in saying yes to God again and again when little seems at stake that we prepare our hearts to say yes to God when everything is at stake.  In this way, steady, incremental growth prepares the heart for extreme disruption- not just to weather these seasons but, in the midst of them, to be transformed.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzqhUYaAI78

 

 

 

Braced for the future

Small, quiet invitations

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah: “Go to the house of the Rechabites and speak with them and bring them to the house of the Lord . . .”- Jeremiah 35:1-2

In today’s blog John Ortberg discusses the fourth (of ten) common myths about doors in Chapter 4 of All the Places to Go.

4.  Open doors are about glamorous spiritual success for spiritual giants.  Open doors are not to be confused with spiritualized stories where we get what makes us the happiest.  On the contrary, Pastor Ortberg states:

” . . . open doors are mostly small, quiet invitations to do something humble for God and with God in a surprising moment.”

The author references the Rechabites, an obscure clan asked to play a special role by God- not to drink, plant vines, sow seeds, build houses, or settle down.  Centuries later, when Israel was on the brink of exile, Jeremiah invited the Rechabites to come to the house of the Lord.  God wanted the people of Israel to learn a lesson from these humble nomads- that God prizes faithfulness to humble tasks.

As John concludes, the attitude with which we do a task is important to God:

“Often an open door is as simple as a second thought: Do the right thing, no matter how small.  Do what any decent human being would do in this situation.  Honor a commitment when it would be easier to let it slide. . . . If the door is not marked ‘glamorous’ just settle for ‘obedient.’ ”

Today’s question: What recent small, quiet invitations from the Lord have you received?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: the new Short Meditation, “Braced for the future”

Small, quiet invitations

Easy on the inside

“But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door of effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.”- 1 Corinthians 16:9

“Easy doesn’t come from the outside.  It comes from the inside.”- John Ortberg

In Chapter 4 of All the Places to Go, John Ortberg presents the third common myth about doors.

3.  If it’s really an open door, my circumstances will be easy.  Applying this myth to vocational doors, Pastor Ortberg notes that we falsely assume that the right job will bring daily passion and fulfillment.  Our performance reviews will be off the charts.  Coworkers who we find difficult to get along with quickly should self-identify their primary role in the discord and move on to another job.

John describes the problem when we desire the easy road:

“If ‘easy’ is my criterion for door judging, then every time I hit ‘hard’, I will be filled with doubt about God, myself, and my choice.”

An open door does not come with the promise of an easy life.  In fact, John notes, when God calls people to go through open doors, generally life gets much harder.  The apostle Paul took the presence of many adversaries as confirmation of the wide door God had opened.

When Jesus said, “My yoke is easy” (Matthew 11:30), He was offering internal ease of spirit- peace and joy in the midst of adversity.  If we experience easy on the inside, we can withstand hard on the outside.

Today’s question: Is your current focus easy on the inside, or are you aiming at easy on the outside?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Small, quiet invitations”

Easy on the inside

Making difficult decisions

“God is a door opener, but he is not a celestial enabler.”- John Ortberg

“Even as he [God] chose us in him [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.”- Ephesians 1:4

Today John Ortberg addresses the second common myth about doors in Chapter 4 of All the Places to Go.

2.  If I can’t tell which door to choose, either God is doing something wrong or I am.  As Pastor Ortberg points out, “big door” decisions rarely are simple.  He believes that when we’re looking for God to tell us what to do, it’s not so much that we’re looking for God’s will for our lives.  Rather, we’re looking for relief from the anxiety that comes with making difficult decisions.

In order to become the person God wants us to become, often God’s will for our lives is for us to decide.  God’s primary will is that we become persons of “excellent character, wholesome liveliness, and divine love.”  At other times, wisdom itself will help us know the right course to take.

John emphasizes that a lack of guidance from heaven regarding which door to choose doesn’t mean that either God has failed or we have.  John concludes that, very often, it’s just the opposite:

“God knew I would grow more from having to make a decision than I would if I got a memo from heaven that would prevent me from growing.”

Today’s question: How has making difficult decisions strengthened your Christian walk and character?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Easy on the inside”

 

Making difficult decisions

The day of small things

“Faith is not about me getting what I want in my outer world; it’s about God getting what he wants in my inner world.”- John Ortberg

“Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.”- Zechariah 4:10 (NLT)

John Ortberg continues Chapter 4 of All the Places to Go with a look at “some common myths about God and doors and the truth that lies behind them.”  The first myth is described today.

1.  God is not involved in my little life.  One of the most crippling myths is that we’re either not spiritual or significant enough to have great adventures with divine doors.  In other words, God is too busy with other things to pay attention to us.

Because we have no conception of what is small in God’s eyes, Pastor Ortberg exhorts us not to despise the day of small things.  Spiritual and physical sizes are not measured by the same standards.  John adds that our world is very small when we’re born and becomes increasingly smaller as we age.  We’ll never learn to find God at all if we don’t find Him in our small worlds, as the author concludes:

“We have no idea what is big or small in God’s eyes.  But for sure, I will never go through a ‘big’ door if I do not humble myself to the task of discerning and entering all the small ones.  Do not despise the day of small things.  For that, too, is the day the Lord has made.”

Today’s question: How do you fight the temptation to despise the day of small things?  Please share.

Coming Tuesday: the latest Short Meditation, “Braced for the future”

Tomorrow’s blog: “Making difficult decisions”

The day of small things

Make our lives count

In Chapter 4 of All the Places to Go, John Ortberg discusses statements people think are in the Bible but are not to be found there.  One is:  When God closes a door, he opens a window.”  Pastor Ortberg points out that Mother Superior from The Sound of Music says that.  The Bible says: “What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.”- Revelation 3:7

John theorizes that we like the “he opens a window” version because it gives us the opportunity to sneak back in so we can go where we really wanted to go all along.  Revelation 3:7 severely limits our options.  Gerald Hawthorne (Colossians) describes God’s open doors:

“unlimited chances to do something worthwhile; grand openings into new and unknown adventures of significant living; heretofore unimaginable chances to do good, to make our lives count for eternity.”

Pastor Ortberg add that our ideas about God’s open doors can be full of misconception and superstition- thinly spiritualized wish fulfillment.  Divine doors intersect deeply with our desires.  Yet we are not the master with God our genie in a bottle.  We cannot make getting the right outcome our idol.  We need to move forward toward the spiritual growth that is God’s deepest desire for us.  John concludes:

“God’s primary will for me is the person I become and not the circumstances I inhabit.”

Today’s question: How have you  grown spiritually following your vocation loss?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “The day of small things”

Make our lives count

How to fix a broken story

John Ortberg concludes Chapter 3 of All the Places to Go by stating that there are times when we become so obsessed with vocational open doors that we’re blind to relational open doors.

Yet, every heart comes with a door.  Pastor Ortberg emphasizes that one of the great gifts of life is having the door of a person’s heart open up to you.  At the church John serves, a group of senior citizens decided to get involved with low-income, high-risk students at a San Francisco high school.  Grant Smith, age eighty-two, is part of the tutoring group.  When Grant didn’t show up one week, his tutee asked. “Where’s my homeboy?”  John comments: “An open door can make a suburban eighty-two-year-old retired pilot somebody’s homeboy.”

My life is energized when I don’t regard it as my life; every moment presents an opportunity to connect with another person, to learn from them, to make them smile.  John summarizes:

“Anytime you step through the open door, your story and Jesus’ story begin to get mixed up together, and you become part of the work of God in this world.  The only way to fix a broken story is to embed it in a larger story that begins and ends well.  As is was once said, so it is said again. . . . ‘But wait!  There’s more.’ ”

Today’s question: How can you embed your broken story in Jesus’ story?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Make our lives count”

How to fix a broken story

Open doors are everywhere

As John Ortberg continues Chapter 3 of All the Places to Go, he posits that actually noticing people leads to open doors.  He states: “Doors open when I actually notice and care about people I might otherwise overlook.”

Pastor Ortberg relates a story he read about a woman who locked her keys in her car.  The car was parked in a very rough neighborhood.  Frustrated by her bungled attempts to use a coat hanger, she prayed to God to send someone to help her.  Soon a rusty car approached, driven by a tattooed, bearded man wearing a biker’s skull rag.  The woman thought this a rather dubious answer to prayer.

Nevertheless, when the man asked if he could be of assistance, the woman replied, “Can you break into my car?”  Replying that it was no problem, the man took the coat hanger and had the door open in seconds.  The woman hugged him and told him he was a nice man.  He told her that he wasn’t a nice man, that he’d just gotten out of prison hours earlier after serving two years for auto theft.  The woman hugged him again and shouted, “Thank you, God, for sending me a professional!”

To a reasonable person, this was not an ideal door choice for the man or the woman.  But what a blessing each received, far beyond the specific encounter.  John concludes:

“Open doors are everywhere, everyday.  And when we follow God’s leading, we receive the blessing of seeing the world and our place in it as he sees it.”

Today’s question: How have God’s open doors blessed you?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “How to fix a broken story”

Open doors are everywhere

Living with one foot raised

“When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there.”- Ruth 1:6

In Chapter 3 of All the Places to Go, John Ortberg reflects on the story of Naomi and her daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth.  Pastor Ortberg notes that Naomi has nothing to give them in terms of material or physical aid.  All Naomi can offer them is freedom from the burden of caring for her.

There are two doors in this circumstance: one marked Stay and one marked Leave.  Orpah chose to leave, Ruth to stay.  John notes that Orpah makes the “prudent, expedient, expected, and rational” decision.  In other words, she made a reasonable choice and lived a reasonable life.

Ruth, however, chooses to live an unreasonable life.  Although Ruth didn’t know this when she made her choice, amazing things now will happen to her.  Ruth made a simple decision to bet everything on love.

When the Jesuits first began, they chose as their motto the Lain word magis, meaning “more.”  Their founder, Ignatius Loyola, used the word to inspire heroic deeds.  In fact, Loyal described the ideal Jesuit as “living with one foot raised.”  John concludes:

“We were made for ‘more"; not to have more out of love for self, but to do more out of love for God.”

Today’s question: How are you living with one foot raised?  Please share.

New addition to the Crown Jewels: “I yam what I yam”

Tomorrow’s blog: “Open doors are everywhere”

 

Living with one foot raised

Little by little

John Ortberg continues Chapter 3 of All the Places to Go with a discussion of what-if? people.  What-if? people lead imaginative lives.  A what-if? attitude is their response to ideas and events.  Pastor Ortberg adds: “What-if” is a big idea, as big as God, for it is the practice of God.”

John adds that God still is looking for what-if? people because we were made for more and we are missing out.  But our hunger for more never will be satisfied if the “more” we want is for ourselves.  In the Bible, open doors are God’s invitation to make our lives count, with His help, for the sake of others.

In The Sacred Journey, Frederick Buechner speaks of what happens when we forget ‘for the sake of others":

“To journey for the sake of saving our own lives is little by little to cease to live in any sense that really matters, even to ourselves, because it is only by journeying for the world’s sake when the world bores and sickens and scares you half to death- that little by little we start to come alive.”

If we simply seek more for ourselves, more actually turns out to be less.  Rather than looking for  opportunities for self-advancement, we need to seek more opportunities to love.

Today’s question: Following your vocation loss, what opportunities have you had to be a what-if? person?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Living with one foot raised”

Little by little

But wait! There"s more.

John Ortberg begins Chapter 3 (“No Mo FOMO: Overcoming the Fear of Missing Out”) of All the Places to Go with the statement that “ironically, it’s vulnerability, not invincibility, that leads to the human connections we really hunger for.”  In contrast, the epidemic of using social media sites to compare our lives to others has given rise to a new electronic disease.  An MIT professor, Sherry Turkle, calls it FOMO- fear of missing out.

Pastor Ortberg notes that FOMO is fed by comparison and is, in a sense, behind the very first sin- because Adam and Eve wanted to be like God.  Yet, John observes, FOMO can have a positive impact on our lives:

“And yet, for all its dangers, FOMO tells us something fundamental about ourselves.  We have an insatiable hunger for more.  We have a longing for life beyond what we are experiencing right now.  Handled rightly, FOMO can lead us to God’s open doors.”

John adds that fear of missing out is behind the man John considers one of the greatest geniuses in American history- Ron Popeil.  Ron’s infomercials always ended with this tagline: “But wait!  There’s more.”  No matter how tantalizing the featured product, the viewer’s imagination was fired by that promise of more.

Today’s question: What do you long for in life beyond what you’re currently experiencing?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Little by little”

But wait! There"s more.

The object of our faith

“If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move.”- Matthew 17:20

“It is better to have little faith in a big God than to have big faith in a little God.”- John Ortberg

John Ortberg concludes Chapter 2 of All the Place to Go by emphasizing the words of Timothy Keller- that it’s not the quality of our faith that saves us, it’s the object of our faith.

Just as with Abraham, the only thing God needs to get our redemption project going is our trust.  God can work with simple trust- not perfection or superhuman efforts.  In The Spirituality of Imperfections, Ernest Kurtz writes that the great enemy of spiritual growth is perfectionism.   He adds that an ancient sage named Macarius pointed out that if we only made progress we would become conceited- conceit being the ultimate downfall of all

Christians.

God’s redemption project involves imperfect people.  When we answer His call and walk through the open door, we get to becomes part of the story.  As John concludes:

“He still call.  He still sends.

“And if you say yes . . .

Oh, the places you’ll go.”

Today’s question: In what areas of your life do you demand perfection?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “But wait!  There’s more.”

The object of our faith

Truths about myself

“When I walk through an open door, I often learn truths about myself that I would never have learned if I’d stayed on the other side.”- John Ortberg

As John Ortberg continues Chapter 2 of All the Places to Go, he observes that when we go through open doors, we have to trust that God will use us in spite of our imperfections.  The process provides a unique avenue for learning about ourselves, warts and all.  Pastor Ortberg adds that, when we go through open doors: (a) we’ll discover our faith really is weaker than we thought it was before we went through the door; and (b) we must be humble enough to accept failure.

The Israelites were a classic example of this when the escaped from slavery in Egypt.  When Moses and Aaron gathered the Israelite slaves to deliver God’s message and show them the miraculous signs, they voiced their belief.  But when they saw Pharaoh coming after them, they changed their tune.  John summarizes: “When their circumstances changed, it turned out they really didn’t believe at all.”

Yet, as Pastor Ortberg will discuss in the next blog, people who walk through God’s open doors need not be spiritual giants, possessing a faith we never could possibly reach.  For example, God chose to work with Abraham because Abraham was willing to trust Him.  It wasn’t based on Abraham’s ability to do the right thing.

Today’s question: Following your vocation loss, how has God used you in spite of your imperfections?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “The object of our faith”

Truths about myself

When the divine "go" comes

“The divine ‘go’ comes into every life, but we must be willing to leave before we’re willing to go.”- John Ortberg

In Chapter 2 of All the Places to Go, John Ortberg notes that there’s an entire field of study in the social sciences based on the psychology of regret.  Regret changes over the course of our lives.  When we’re young we have short-term regrets. They most often involve wishing we hadn’t done something, like getting a speeding ticket.  As we age, we come to regret those actions that we did not take, such as the chance to serve.

Pastor Ortberg adds that if we make the wrong choice we’ll have short-term regrets, but we won’t wonder what might have been.  If we say yes we may fail.  But if we don’t, we won’t experience life with God and be a blessing in this world.

John states that when Terah and his family set out for Canaan, Terah didn’t complete the journey.  He stopped at Harran.  When Abram received his divine ‘go’, he willingly followed God’s calling to  new land.  John concludes:

“When a door is opened, count the costs, weigh the pros and cons, get wise counsel, look as far down the road as you can.  But in your deepest heart, in its most secret place, have a tiny bias in the direction of yes.  Cultivate a willingness to charge through open doors, even if it’s not this particular door.

Today’s question: What regrets have you had following your vocation loss?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Truths about myself”

 

When the divine "go" comes

Turn around

“Having said this, she (Mary) turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus.”- John 20:14

“If you’re scared that you don’t matter; if you’re lost and need to be found; if you’re looking for a Savior, all you gotta do is turn around.”- Matt Maher

I would estimate that I supervised approximately one thousand recesses during my twelve years teaching at Northwest Lutheran School in Milwaukee.  Children had three play area options: the athletic field, the black top, or a fenced-in section with swings and a modern jungle gym.  On this particular day, I had duty in the fenced-in section.  Out of the blue, someone exclaimed, “There’s an owl in that tree!”  Being an avid bird watcher, that was my cue to turn around.  Near the top of the tree, completely unperturbed by the bustling activity below, perched a short-eared owl!  It was a one in one thousand experience.

Had I not made the decision to turn around, I would have missed that one in a Northwest-lifetime opportunity.  One brief moment produced a beautiful remembrance of God’s creation and His encompassing  presence.  Indeed, as author and pastor John Ortberg writes, God is present in this instant, offering to partner with us in whatever we face.  Stephen Mansfield reasons that our soul must yearn for long-term righteousness rather than temporary methods to dull our pain. Human solutions fall far short.  Our soul needs to be whole.

Singer/songwriter Matt Maher notes that when one of his guitar strings breaks, it affects not just itself, but also the whole guitar. It’s not enough to tune the replacement string, because the pitches of all the other strings have been altered.  There’s a delicate balance at play between all the strings.  Matt adds that we must turn away from anything that we make more important than God, taking stock of what direction we’re facing: “You don’t need to move, love has come to you, all you gotta do is turn around.”  John Ortberg echoes Matt’s instrumental illustration:

“We are not meant to embrace moments, but to embrace God.  Moments are not always good.  God is never anything but good.  Moments are simply the place where we meet him.  Every moment.  Starting now.”

Each moment of our lives can be a sacrament, a vehicle for God’s love and power (Jean Pierre de Caussade).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IbgbfmQogo

 

 

 

 

Turn around

You"re not done

“By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he later would receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.  By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country.”- Hebrews 11:8-9

“If you’re not dead, you’re not done.”- Pastor Craig Groeschel

As John Ortberg continues in Chapter 2 of All the Places to Go, he stresses that, despite extended periods of waiting, open door people resist becoming discouraged and persist in faithfulness to God’s calling.  Pastor Ortberg notes that when God promised Abram and Sarai a child, they had good reasons to be skeptical, for Sarai wasn’t able to conceive (Genesis 11:30).

This was a big deal in Abram’s day.  In the ancient world: (a) children meant financial security; (b) children were a continuance of your name, a form of immortality;  and (c) women were understood to exist on earth for the express purpose of having children.  The inability to bear a child was a stigma, a shame, and a disgrace.

God told Abram and Sarai He would make happen what they’d been waiting for.  But they had to go- by faith.  Yet, John reminds us, we always will find an excuse to hinder us.  But age never is a reason for us to say no when God says go.  John concludes:

“Sometimes it takes a while for God’s promises to be fulfilled.  But if your not dead, that’s the clue you’re not done.”

Today’s question: What Bible verses have strengthened your resolve to resist discouragement and persist in faithfulness?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: the new Short Meditation, “Turn around”

You"re not done

Blessed to bless

“. . . I will bless you.  I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all -peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”- Genesis12:2-3

In Chapter 2 of All the Places to Go, John Ortberg notes that the word blessing “needs to be rescued from the clichés of social hash tags.”  It has become to go-to form for people wanting to brag about an accomplishment while pretending to be humble.

Believing, for Abram, was not only an opportunity to know and experience God, but also included being used by God to benefit others.  Abram was blessed to bless.  Rather than having an attitude of scarcity, Abram had a attitude of abundance.  A spirit of generosity is required when going through an open door.

John states that open doors are an invitation to be part of the misseo Dei– the mission of God.  In Genesis 3-11 the word curse is used five times in response to sin.  But in Chapter 12,God uses the word bless five times.

For the nation of Israel, blessing included not just God’s gifts but life with God.  One could not be blessed in the highest sense apart from becoming a blessing in return.

Today’s question: Following your vocation loss, how have you been blessed to bless?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “You’re not done”

Blessed to bless

Coming from and going to

Moving on in Chapter 2 of All the Places to Go, John Ortberg observes that open doors aren’t’ always well-marked.  In other words, when God does call, the call isn’t always clear.  Pastor Ortberg states that, as a general rule, God gives information on a need-to-know basis.  And God makes the decision as to who needs to know what, when.

Abram’s move from Ur of the Chaldeans to the land God would show him (aka Canaan) is a prime example.  Just as with Abram, there are two parts to God’s ‘go"; coming from and going to.  God was vague about where Abram and Sarai were going to.  John points out, though, that open door people are comfortable with the ambiguity and risk- or at least don’t allow it- to paralyze them.

No one looking for opportunity would have considered “going from” Ur.  Ur was a place of great wealth, trading, learning, and technology in 2000 B. C.  So Abram’s open door wasn’t obvious.  Going through God’s open doors means trusting God with our future when our path is ambiguous.

In Ur Abram had received a cultural inheritance of idolatry.  For Abram to receive God’s blessing and become a great nation, a move to seemingly undesirable Canaan was a necessity.  John notes:

“The open door is often more about where my insides are going than where my outsides are going.”

Today’s question: How comfortable are you with ambiguity and risk?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Blessed to bless”

Coming from and going to