Wearing the World

I am in the midst of life's whirlwind at the moment. June is always a busy month for us with birthdays and Father's Day and the end of school, but this year is especially hectic. In two days relatives will begin arriving for the graduation of my youngest son, Andrew, from High School. This will be followed the next week by the wedding of my oldest son, Timothy, to his wonderful sweetheart Anastasia. Her parents are coming all the way from Kazakhstan to be a part of it all, and we hope that we will be able to show them a little bit of Northern California while they are here. It is also Ben and my twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. Oh, yes, and our daughter in Irvine needs to be moved out of her apartment during some free moment. She is heading to England to study next year and has a load of furniture that needs to get home and stashed somewhere.

With all this activity, the challenge before me is how to live in the kingdom of God: fully present to each precious moment, thankful for each person I have a conversation with, relying on God's grace to carry me through. I am afraid I will be distracted and taken off course by the sheer logistics of multiple trips to the airport, finding a place for people to sleep, preparing meals, organizing parties, and the thousand and one details that are part of planning a wedding.

I recently ran across this quote from St. Francis of Assisi in Dallas Willard's book Renovation of the Heart:

"wear the world like a loose garment, which touches us in a few places and there lightly."

I find this very encouraging, because Francis doesn't tell us to take off the world and become detached from the lives we lead, but to wear it loosely. There is no way for me to be detached from the momentous life events that are converging on me. There will be joy and loss and emotions I can't even predict right now. And I want to engage in them. There are also a zillion mundane moments that will happen between now and then. The key for me is to not let the world weigh heavily on my shoulders, rubbing me raw. I feel like the month of June is a lab of whether it's really possible to rely on grace and the presence of God to not just help me survive the craziness, but enjoy each moment. I'm sure I'll fail many times during the month, but I also hope I have a few shining moments in every day where grace was sufficient and I held on to my own agenda and plans loosely. As Dallas Willard says about those who are apprentices of Jesus,

"They are free to focus their efforts on the service of God and others and the furthering of good generally, and to be as passionate about such things as may be appropriate to such efforts."

I'll let you know how it goes! In the meanwhile, check back here for a special guest blogger during the month of June.

Healing Service

I wanted to make a brief comment about the awesome healing service that we had earlier this month. The elder board is so amazed and delighted and humbled by the people of Oak Hills whenever we get the opportunity to pray with and for you. We spent much of our last Elder Board meeting just talking about what courage and honesty and faith so many of you showed to come to the front of the church and ask for prayers of healing. We prayed for physical, emotional, relational, and financial healing, heard confessions and pleas for wisdom and direction and were so touched that we were able to be a part of it all. It was a great privilege to ask God to take action in each situation and know that he is able and willing to do it. In fact, I reflected at one point during the service that God had already taken action in those people's lives who got up out of their seats and came forward to share their burdens and be anointed. If you are one of those people, I hope you take comfort from the knowledge that the Spirit was stirring in you even then. However, we realize it can be an awkward experience to go forward and stand waiting for someone to be available, and most likely many people who felt the desire to be prayed for just couldn't do it. I'd like to remind you that the Elder Board prays for healing up in the prayer room before our first meeting of the month (Second Wednesday from 6-7 pm). Just contact Sharon to get on the schedule or show up at 6 outside the prayer room on the second floor. We'd love to hear your story and pray for God to do his work in your life!