the INN [aftermath]

If it happens at the INN, it's here just a little bit later. We also might throw other fun stuff in here too.

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INN Reflection - Fred Prudek

As I think over my years as pastor of the Inn, 1979-85, and the many years that have passed since, I am amazed how God has used the Inn to touch so many lives, not only students, but others as well.  

I praise the LORD for First Presbyterian Church, and the people at First Pres. who had the vision for the Inn and a ministry to WWU.  It was a great sacrifice for First Presbyterian to take on paying for a pastor to university students, when they did not have any other pastor for their own youth and children.  God has blessed their vision and sacrifice over the years.  I am thankful for the privilege to serve at the Inn during those six years. It was certainly the period of the greatest fruit during my years of ministry.  An  added plus was meeting my wife to be, Kelly.  

May God be praised.

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INN Reflection - Fred Prudek

As I think over my years as pastor of the Inn, 1979-85, and the many years that have passed since, I am amazed how God has used the Inn to touch so many lives, not only students, but others as well.  

I praise the LORD for First Presbyterian Church, and the people at First Pres. who had the vision for the Inn and a ministry to WWU.  It was a great sacrifice for First Presbyterian to take on paying for a pastor to university students, when they did not have any other pastor for their own youth and children.  God has blessed their vision and sacrifice over the years.  I am thankful for the privilege to serve at the Inn during those six years. It was certainly the period of the greatest fruit during my years of ministry.  An  added plus was meeting my wife to be, Kelly.  

May God be praised.

[theinnaftermath-blog]

INN Reflection - Fred Prudek

As I think over my years as pastor of the Inn, 1979-85, and the many years that have passed since, I am amazed how God has used the Inn to touch so many lives, not only students, but others as well.  

I praise the LORD for First Presbyterian Church, and the people at First Pres. who had the vision for the Inn and a ministry to WWU.  It was a great sacrifice for First Presbyterian to take on paying for a pastor to university students, when they did not have any other pastor for their own youth and children.  God has blessed their vision and sacrifice over the years.  I am thankful for the privilege to serve at the Inn during those six years. It was certainly the period of the greatest fruit during my years of ministry.  An  added plus was meeting my wife to be, Kelly.  

May God be praised.

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Bill Clem reflects on his years at the INN and shares an encouragement for students today.

Bill Clem served as the INN’s fifth director from 1993 - 1997.

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INN Reflection - Mike Woodruff

Sheri and I look back at our time at The INN with great affection – so many great people, so many great friendships, so many pivotal events.  Serving alongside the students and staff at The INN was one of the highlights of our life. We pray that whatever foundations were formed have been built upon, to the greater glory of Christ.

We are doing well.  Austin graduated from college, spent two years in the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic and then returned to the area, took a job as an analyst, and last week bought a house. We see him on weekends as he volunteers at the church and then shows up for the free meal!

Ben graduated from high school early and then did a YWAM DTS in Jamaica and Trinidad.  He returned to the states for college, graduating from North Park University a year ago. He was going to move out but stuck around to help in my recovery (more on that in a bit).  He works for a small engineering firm as their media, web site, PR guy. He is set to move in with Austin in a couple of weeks, but we will see him as he is one of the audio/video volunteers at the church.

Jason is 22 and a rising junior at the University of Iowa. This summer he is on a mission trip in New Jersey.  He is doing well.

Sheri is also well – her recovery from a second torn ACL notwithstanding. She is involved in discipling women – including a group of college girls – and coaching (b-ball, soccer, etc.) 

I am the senior pastor at** Christ Church**, a multisite church located in the northern suburbs of Chicago. I’ve been on staff here since ’99.  Just over a year ago I suffered a Spontaneous Cerebral Arterial Dissection – or SCAD – which led to a stroke. The SCAN was likely caused by some distance swimming I’d been doing.  It set me back a fair bit – a few weeks in the hospital, three weeks in a stroke rehab facility and then 3 months in outpatient therapy. I’m about 85% of pre-stroke. The good news is, though I have some balance and vision issues, I can once again drive, read, work, etc.  I learned a lot.  Should you want to know more, you can access my blog for all the gory details.  Go to mikewoodruff.org and click on health update.

Press On in Christ,

Mike

Mike was the INN’s 4th director serving from 1985 - 1993

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One Message

Something profound happened

Look at the accounts of the Gospels and you’ll find that a huge percentage is dedicated to the final week of Jesus’ life - known in the Church now as Holy Week. 

Look at the proclamations Jesus’ earliest followers and they constantly harp on one message - Jesus died but was ressurrected.  

Everything flows from what happened on the cross.

Offensive and crazy unless true

Yet to our modern minds, the resurrection of Jesus might be the one thing hardest for us to accep for good reason.  As Tim Keller notes in The Reason for God, it was also inconceivable for the first century world despite what we might like to think about ancient peoples from our elightened vantage point.  The resurrection is also much more difficult for us to dismiss than we would like to think if we take historical evidence as seriously as we like to say.

Radical hope for the world if true

Keller finishes his chapter on the challenge of the resurrection by quoting from scholar N.T. Wright who has studied and written extensively on the first century (221).

The message of the resurrection is that this world matters!  That the injustices and pains of this present world must now be addressed with the news that healing, justice and love have won… If Easter means Jesus Christ is only raised in a spiritual sense - [then] it is only about me, and finding a new dimension in my personal spiritual life.  

But if Jesus Christ is truly risen from the dead, Christianity becomes good news for the whole world - news which warms our hearts precisely because it isn’t just about warming hearts.  Easter means that in a world where injustice, violence and degradation are endemic, God is not prepared to tolerate such things - and that we will work and plan, with all the energy of God, to implement victory of Jesus over them all.  

Take away Easter and Karl Marx was probably right to accuse Christianity of ignoring problems of the material world.  

Take it away Freud was probably right to say Christianity is wish-fulfillment.  

Take it away and Nietzsche probably was right to say it was for wimps.  

Something worthy of reflection on this week where ever we find ourselves with Jesus even if at this point we might just want to wish it were true.

- Jon

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throwing Jesus off a cliff

What would make you want to throw Jesus off a cliff?  

“Nothing!” I would image many of us would say.  Unless your impression of Jesus is an angry one, I would imagine most consider Jesus so loving that there would never be any reason to get mad at him let alone want to to kill him.  Only selfish mean power hungry people would have anything against Jesus.  Right?

His love and goodness are boundless for sure.  Could our impressions grow such that his desires so match ours that Jesus and his love, well, feel boring and irrelevant in a world full of hard realities?

Love and hate close together.  The more I take a second look, the more I’m amazed and facinated by Jesus - especially in his interactions and leadership.  

Luke chapter 4 is one of those where people go from cheering to rage in just a few lines.  More interestingly is that they are his hometown crowd would have known him personally. Most noteably this kind of swing is seen between the crowds cheering on his arrival to Jerusalem and then for his crucifixition days later.  Consider the swing of his hometown rejection ...

You got to be curious!  From taking a second look at Luke 4:14-30 and many others my trust continues to grow because there is nothing that can pull Jesus from his resolute mission of proclaiming the Good News of the Lord’s favor for all.  

Nothing.  Not my even well intentioned small view of God’s mission.  Not my selfish desire for blessings over others.  Not even my lack of faith that his good news is really possible for me.  

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,    because he has anointed me    to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners    and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,  to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Luke 4:18-19

Uncontrollable enough to be trustworthy.  I can in all humility praise God with the psalmist (139) that I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  I can also recognize that I can be led by selfishness, fear, pride and outright falsehood where a cardboard Jesus I can control sounds pretty good.  Thankfully he doesn’t take his ques from me.  He’s more trustworthy than that.  

The more I see Jesus for who he really is on his terms the more I’ve discoverd that he is…

Compassionateand tender enough for me to bring my shame, guilt and sin without fear.

Truthful enough to tell me when I’m full of it and captured by lies.

Merciful I don’t have to live in fear of failure.

Gracious enough to called me into things I don’t deserve and give me good things I have no right to

Good enough to die for the freedom of his enemies of which I am one

Strong enough to stare down a Roman Governor who wants him to beg for his life – the courage of which I can only aspire

Jon

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Everyone’s personal Jesus

It’s amazing how powerful impressions can be.  They help us make quick decisions, they are really hard to change and they can often be wrong or at the very least painfully inadequate.

If its true in our everyday relationships how much more so with the person of Jesus Christ?  

Impressions might be about someone else but often have a lot to say about us.    More than ever it’s easy to indentify with those who might ask, “Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up?”

Since the days that Jesus walked the earth people have been trying to make him fit into their preferred categories and since the beginning Jesus has been busting those categories wide open.  

Look through Luke’s account of Jesus, an account explicityly stated that was investigated carefully, and you see a Jesus who can capture people’s imaginations one minute and infuriate the next.  

When we want a Jesus in our image to fulfull our agendas in our way, we end up with everyone’s Personal Jesus.

Do we want a Jesus like that?  Frankly, I would at times.  What I’ve found over the years though is that a Jesus that never challenges isn’t worth following and frankly isn’t that interesting.  Why bother with a leader let alone a god who isn’t anymore insightful than me?  

When I’ve taken a second look and even allowed myself to be bothered, I’ve ended up discovering that Jesus is much more trustworthy, much more interesting, much more insightful and much more merciful than the comfortable impression I started with.  

I hope in this season leading up to Easter that together we can more full see Jesus for who he really is.  

- Jon

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A Second Look at a Lawful Jesus

Sitting here in Wood’s Boulevard - enjoying the views, people watching, and free refills of drip coffee while I study - it seems like a fitting time to reflect on Shannon’s talk last night, seeing as how it is one of her favorite places.

I wonder why.

The word Shannon brought last night resonated with a lot of people last night, including myself. I know I have been limited by a first impression of Jesus as a meticulous rule creator and follower, developed partly from my misunderstanding of lessons from Sunday School and elsewhere as a child. I often heard lessons on the law, working to memorize the 10 Commandments in order to earn pieces of candy, trying to read my way through Leviticus and other law-heavy books, and learning the hard way that Sunday Schools and mothers don’t like it when you swear.

However, the second look Shannon provided last night paints a different picture of Jesus than the distant lord of rules I often imagined as a child. Through Matthew 12 we learn that Jesus is a Lord of compassion who came to fulfill the law. When the Pharisees object to Jesus’s disciples picking grain to eat on the sabbath, Jesus points out that David broke the sabbath out his human need of food when he was on the brink of starvation. When the Pharisees question if it is lawful to heal on the sabbath, Jesus responds not just by saying “it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath,” but by healing the shriveled hand of a man. While sabbath and rest are extremely important throughout scripture, Jesus desires mercy rather than sacrifice. Human need can sometimes supercede the law.

For us as Christians, this can seem to muddy the water a bit. How do we then interpret law for ourselves? What does it mean to find the heart of the law that God desires, so that we can follow scripture without being ruthless rule followers? The answers to these questions aren’t easy and require wrestling with scripture and listening to try to discern God’s voice in our lives.

While I still struggle often with law and scripture on different issues and in various facets of my life, my mind keeps coming back to a comforting excerpt from the book Shannon read from last night, Dating Jesus: “The farthest I can get on a good day is this: I believe God, God I believe.” While wrestling with scripture is rarely easy, we can rest in the knowledge of Jesus’s love for us through it.

-Elise

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The mystery of belonging

Everyone wants to belong.  More than ever as a culture we hold up the value of inclusion and the great cultural sin of exclusion having recognized how often as a society we tend toward the latter almost instinctually.  At the same time study after study illuminates a trend not toward a deeper experience of belonging but just the opposite or toward a growing kind of tribalism.  

Everyone wants to belong, but belonging feels increasingly difficult and illusive.  I’ve really struggled with trying to wrap my head around this one.  It seems like it should be straightforward but often feels confusing.  It seems like it should be fairly easy but often feels disappointing.  It carries the potential of great joy but often I witnessed and experienced myself great pain.

The places where I’ve experienced belonging best.  As I’ve thought about where I’ve experienced belonging I often go to my years at camp (which incidently is why I think camp and summer mission opportunities are so valuable because they teach you so much).  Camp experiences are often accused of being “not real” and so dismissed.  Fair enough to a point but have a couple of kids and you’ll realize camp life is much more “real” than you would like.  Strip out all the camp names and games though and I think in some ways they can illuminate what we so often miss in the “real world”.  

3 important factors.  The best camp or mission experiences illuminate how 3 important factors integrate in a powerful way to create a deep sence of belonging.  Three factors that I’m coming to see at work in just about every opportunity for belonging we have.

1.  Reason for entry.  Why do you belong? What is it that you are, have, bring or can do that justifies your belonging to some group in particular?  

Effect – either anxiety and depression OR joy and confidence.

2.  Purpose of belonging.  Reason to belong which opens up how you can tangibly belong and the passion by which you belong.

Effect – dissatisfaction and apathy OR passion and engagement

3.  Code of Conduct - Way a group of people live together to actually live out the mission or purpose which opens up the depth of the experience of belonging.

Effect - Either conflict, division and frustration OR strength to go deep and fruitfulness.

What I’ve noticed.  I wonder if our experience of belonging is often so confusing and frustrating because we either thing that belonging is about only one but not the others or haven’t realized how the three fit together.  What I’ve noticed is that simply signing up for camp (#1) gets you there but is never enough.  On the other hand when I’ve taken a risk to join a particular group, given myself to a purpose and mission that really matters and aligned my way of living to that end that I’ve both experienced a deep sense of belonging and discovered all kinds of things about who I am uniquely.  

How this applies uniquely to the letter to the movement of Jesus followers I’ll save for the next blog.  

An idea and a question:

- If you’re wondering what’s missing with your sense of belonging, consider how the 3 factors might be mismatched or perhaps missing.  

- What have you learned about how belonging works best or where have you seen belonging at it’s best?

Peace - Jon Epps

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The most strategic question we often ignore

We all like to be blessed.  We all deeply want to know that we are valuable. Push-come-to-shove and the immediate demands and opportunities of the day shove deeper questions into the background in favor of what needs to get done to get it done.

I like action.  I work hard.  I like to get things done and often grow impatient with talk.  My own experience and the example of the Pharisees though remind me that a skewed focus on what needs to get done can be deadly, especially when it starts off well intentioned.  

The example of Jesus reminds me that more important than the what is the how and the why.  

If it’s good enough for Jesus…  Before Jesus started his official ministry, we’re told that he went to be baptized by his cousin John.  What's strange about that is that John was preaching about turning from sin and getting ready for the new way of God.  In Matthew 3:13, we’re told that John even tried to deter Jesus from baptism but relented as Jesus pushed that this was important to his fully living into what was right and best.  

Jesus didn’t need to turn from sin but apparently it was important for him to hear clearly and accept deeply what his Father in Heaven had to say to him...

“This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

About power.  Jesus’ example challenges me that hearing this, believing this and acting out of this wasn’t an issue of sentimentality but of power.  The only clear frontal attack with evil that we read of comes immediately after this baptismal affirmation.  Apparently something powerful enough happened for the Accuser to want to immediately undermine what had just been spoken.

Subversive mind games.  What’s so interesting about the temptations in the wilderness is just how much the whats about Jesus’ call weren’t in question.  The hows and the whys, well that was another issue.  The major assault all came around the question of identity, specifically whether he was really chosen and loved or not.  How he answered that deep question, would have massive implications for how he handled questions of...

Privilege - focus on leveraging access to get what I need first.

Political integrity - will I make deals with the devil to get power quickly?

Fame - will I focus on proving myself through publicity stunts to garner fame?

Tyrant or Lord.  How he answered those temptations of identity would determine whether the whats of his life would lead to another brutal tyrant or Savior and Lord.  

As the ancient song from Philippians 2 reminds us - he would ascend to receive all power, honor, glory and fame.  Thankfully, he did so not for his  benefit but for ours.

- Jon  

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With each passing year, my appreciation grows for John’s simple, short, yet profound introduction of Jesus. 

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.  

John 1:14

This year it’s captured me as one of the great statements of hope for humanity. 

The Word.  Not any word. Not a flood of words, the kind we are bombarded by and certainly not just trite, meaningless words spoken just because they can.  No, John uses a loaded word if you will.  

The Word, the purpose, the meaning, the reason for being, the idenity by which everything else is given its own.  

The Word that the Greeks sought yet found illusive.  

If I might riff on the Dude, the Word that ties the whole room together.

Illusive no more, for just as words reveals the unseen thoughts of person, the Word reveals the identity and mind of the unseen and Almighty God.

The IDENTITY which has spoken identity into the created world.  

An identity rooted in love, delight, power and relationship.  

An identity given honor because of the delight of the creator to share his own image and not for our utility.

Became Flesh and moved in to the nighborhood.  The Word is good news not for it’s theorhetical weight but for the hope it proclaims to our own embodied lives busied within a few streets we call a neighborhood.  

Affirmation that the created world and our day to day matters, a lot, enough to not just create but redeem.  It matters enough to enter into with all its pain and joy, beauty and brutality.  

Hope though that this isn’t all there is, our present circumstances don’t need to define us or dictate our action and our identities are defined by more than getting by as an organism.  

I think that it’s one of the great statements of hope because it hold together what seems most true about what it means to be human - identity, meaning, purpose, relationship and day to day flesh and blood realities.  

Default to either and something profound is missing.

O Come O Come Emmanuel therefore seems to be perhaps the song / prayer of hope for all of us living the tension of all the demands and realities of the immediate yet longing with hope for more.  

Merry Christmas!  

Jon Epps

Listen/purchase: O Come O Come Emmanuel Studio Version by The INN

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Deep Goodness

Last night I was struck by the recurring theme of the overwhelming goodness of God. 

I’ve always thought about and struggled with how to define ‘goodness’; perhaps it’s one of those things that can’t be defined, and yet you know it when you see it.  I saw the goodness of God on Tuesday night as students called out blessings that they had received from God. 

I heard students thanking God for:

Amazing friends

Patience

Forgiveness

Guidance

Freedom

Faithfulness

Provision

Laughter

Love

Grace

Creation

Joy even through sorrow

Beauty

Life

What about pain? It feels so easy to see the goodness of God while thinking of the blessings and joys in our lives.  But my mind began to wander to the pain that I have experienced in my own life, and the pain that I have seen others endure.  How can I see God’s goodness even in those times?  How can I trust in God through tears and feelings of hopelessness?

I think the story of St. Patrick leads me towards the answer of that question. 

I love that Jon used his story last night; my family was lucky enough to live in Ireland for a few years, so I of course love all things Irish.  At age 16, St. Patrick was captured by the Irish and forced into slavery for 6 years until his eventual escape.  While reading about his time in captivity, I found that Patrick actually converted to Christianity while in captivity, and claimed that his time as a slave was critical to his spiritual well being.  Later, after his escape, he received a vision from God telling him to return to Ireland as a missionary.  So he went!  And his time there led to thousands of Irish converting to Christianity!  I feel like if St. Patrick were asked whether or not his time in Ireland was ‘good’, he would say yes. I’m sure his years in slavery were full of pain, anxiety, fear, and frustration, but I also see it full of meaning, purpose, hope, and transformation.  I think that’s what God’s goodness means to me, not something that makes me feel comfortable, happy, or content, but something that gives my life meaning, hope, and purpose.      

 While living in Ireland, I was shocked by the darkness and isolation brought during the winter months.  People crowded into pubs to find warmth and comfort during such a dark season.  But then the spring came! And all that rain made views like this one possible:       

And as the next winter began to creep closer, I found the darkness so much easier to endure while knowing and trusting that spring would soon come with more beauty than I could imagine.  I think that’s where God’s goodness can be found, not in the dark rain, nor the bright green hills, but in the meaning, purpose, and hope behind the rainy season. 

- Shannon 

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Reflections from Heidi - Beyond Circumstance a

Each time he said, “My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. 2 Corinthians 12:9.

I have been struggling a little bit lately…emotionally, mentally, physically…so often it feels like I’m trapped. But I am somehow still comforted. I somehow still see the light. I am never completely surrounded by darkness. This is because I believe in the power of God. I believe that God is bigger than my anxious thoughts, that God is bigger than my situation or any situation I will face. God has lifted me out of the darkness so many times before. So why would I have any reason to doubt that he will again? Even when we fail because we are in the midst of a storm, God continues to be faithful. 

In Mark 5, there is a story about a man who comes to Jesus because his daughter is dying. While Jesus is on his way to see her, a message comes that she has died. So, the people in the crowd have an attitude of, “It’s over. There’s no point. Why bother Jesus anymore? There’s nothing he can do.” But Jesus continues on his way to her and he raises her from the dead. The circumstances said that there was no more hope, that it was the end. But Jesus still came and intervened. This leads to an important question: Do I believe in what my circumstances allow or do I believe in the unlimited power of God? Which do you choose to believe in? I think we often find ourselves in circumstances where it would be easy to give up. But Jesus provides hope when there seems to be no more. And this is something we can always count on.

On Tuesday, Jon said a few things that stuck out to me. One was: “You can say there can’t be a God because there is suffering in the world, but you are still going to encounter suffering.” We might as well be suffering people with hope and a purpose rather than just suffering people. If I get to choose, I choose to have hope. It’s not usually our circumstances or who we are that keep us from being who God has called us to be, but what we believe our circumstances are saying about us. As Jon said, “Culture speaks to us as if we’re orphans. But we are sons and daughters of the King.” That is where I choose to find my identity. That is what defines me.

“God brings about what is good and powerful and courageous.” And I have to believe that that is true in me. 

“…nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8: 39b. And for this I am so incredibly grateful. 

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Reflections on Called Beyond Spectating by Hannah Carter

How do we get from an obscure fisherman to the keeper of heaven’s keys?

As I listened to Jon’s talk last night, I was struck by space. Space is kind of an unusual concept. Often times we think of space as outer space or in terms of art, but for our purposes let’s think of space as our dwelling place or places.

Our homes.

Our friends.

Our careers.

Our culture.

Our lives.

Jesus as a teacher spoke with authority. That authority ruffled some feathers (Pharisees, I’m looking at you!). He is the way, the life, and the truth. But he didn’t reserve his truth-telling to religious spaces. He preached from mountains, in homes, and even from boats. 

Boats were Peter’s space.

It was his career.

His family.

His identity.

He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 

Yet Jesus enters into Peter’s space and does two things.

One, he uses it for His glory.

He preaches to the masses from the boat, bring truth and grace to all who listen.

But he doesn’t stop there…

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”

Two, he speaks authority into Peter’s space of expertise. I can imagine nothing infuriates a fisherman more than a carpenter telling him how to do his job. But by doing so, Jesus reminds Peter that he is the ultimate authority and that it wasn’t Peter’s space to begin with. 

Sometimes God calls us out our spaces, and sometimes he uses us in the spaces we inhabit.  He can’t be the Lord of your tomorrow if he’s not the Master of your today. When we understand that our spaces are temporary gifts and trust in God’s purpose for today, we can allow Him to empower us to perpetuate His glory tomorrow. 

Spectators stay in the stands. Spectators are passive observers. Spectators stay in the boat.

 When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

When Peter lost his boat, he gained the kingdom. Where is Jesus invading your space and telling you to follow him? Cast your nets and go in purpose.

 Hannah Carter

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Beyond Circumstance

If life is a game we play then circumstance is our GET OUT OF JAIL FREE card. 

Get busted or really want to do something that you know you shouldn’t - just pull out your circumstance card!  

I swear officer, it’s not my fault! I’m just trying to get home because my kid bazooka barfed all over himself!  I’d love to go 25 mph, but my son...

I kid you not (just caught that pun) I got a ticket in the very same spot not two weeks later.  

If circumstance is the card we can use to defer blame, isn’t it true that it can also be the jail cell we can come to feel trapped in?

It all depends on the circumstances of the game.  At the begining when things are going well, we want to be out there snatching up as much as can.  Later, if things aren’t going so well we might actually be relieved to be in jail because its the one place where we can find some degree of safety when the game has spun out of our control.  Not only that, but it gives us an excuse and something to blame.  I’d be out there but ...

We live in a crazy moment in history.  One one hand, at least in America, we have more freedom and opportunity to do what we want than ever before.  One the other, every day we discover more and more just how influenced we are and how fragile our autonomy actually is.  From the influence of our upbringing to the current economy to the political climate to even the role of our own physiology it’s easy to see where the idea of being a victim of circumstance has some credibility.  

A champion for today - Esther

In a world where it can seem that things are out of our control and God, if there is one, is totally absent - the Book of Esther calls us beyond being victims of circumstance.  For one it’s an account of God’s providential work without any reference to God let alone any miraculous interventions which can feel like the world we live in.  Secondly, if there was ever a person who had every right to blame circumstance, it was Esther.  

Thousands of years later we remember Esther not as a helpless girl or a victim of circumstance but as a courageous woman who in the midst of brutal circumstances defind the moment in history as an influencer.

Why?  I think chapter four of Esther takes us to the critical moment and shows us two profound perspective shifts.

1.  Perspective shift on circumstances

“Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape.  For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish.

And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

When the game feels overwheming it’s understandable to think that the only think you can do is retreat to your corner and hope somehow you’ll be ok.  It’s the strategy in Monopoly of trying to get in jail and then staying there.  When Esther with the help of her cousin is about to pull back a bit she was able to see that instead of being trapped by circumstance, perhaps she was uniquely placed to be the one person in the empire in a position to save not just herself but an entire people group.  

2.  Perspective shift on authority

"Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do.

When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law.

And if I perish, I perish.”     

Where circumstances still dire and largely out of her control?  Yes.  No longer though was she only an orphaned women whose people had been exiled to a strange land valued only for her good looks and compliance.  

She was a daughter of the Soverign God of all creation, supported by her trusted cousin and an entire community, a queen with access to the highest halls of power.  

We all face particular challenges defined by particular circumstances that call for particular action.  My hope and prayer for us all this week is that our vision would be defined by the God who is Lord over all, constantly at work in ways we don’t often see who is calling us to be men and women whose character and courage define the circumstances of life.  

Peace :: Jon

[theinnaftermath-blog]

Called Beyond

So a wealthy young influencer walks up to Jesus and asks, “What good thing do I need to do to get eternal life?”

Lay aside for a moment what comes to mind when you hear the phrase eternal life and what you believe or don’t believe about life after death because it’s the kind of question we all ask.  What’s the good thing that we need to do to get life that goes beyond the mundane, the just getting by, the fleeting and the meaningless? 

Jesus shoots back, “If you really want to know how to connect with what is deeply good, why don’t you talk to the only one who is good – God  – but I’ll play along, how about rules of not being a jerk?”   My translations by the way!

Turns out that there doesn’t seem to be much more for this guy to do.  Beyond having his youth, power, authority, title, intelligence, he’s also a pretty moral person. 

He hasn’t killed anyone,

cheated on his wife,

lied to get someone in trouble,

stolen,

been nice to his mama

and he’s not a bad neighbor. 

It’s not enough, the young influencer pushes, “What more do I need to do?”

Good or effective? He’s learned what so many of us have learned.  By good, he means effective.  He’s learned that he needs to figure out what good things will obligate God (or insert any power beyond yourself you like) to relent and give him what he most deeply longs for. 

When it comes to our concept of God, I wonder if we don’t perhaps think about like we’re rats in an experiment?  Trapped in a cage by God, destined to figure out which tricks to perform so we can get a goodie we hope one day to be let out of our small cage at least into something bigger.  Perhaps we even feel like the more we perform the more that’s demanded of us until nothing that we consider good is left.

  Is that what is really going on?  Perhaps that’s what we’ve heard or what experience has lead us believe but is it true?  Read through the accounts of Jesus and you get a very different picture.  Read deeper than simplistic modern stereotypes and the Old Testament even seems to paint a different picture starting from page 1.   

What if the barriers between us an our visions of hope aren’t from God but arise from boxes of our own making and the making of a beautiful yet broken world?

What if the hardest thing we’re called to do, is being open to a goodness so much bigger than what we can conceive of that it’s frightening yet so good that its worth taking a step outside of myself?

This fall at the INN, that's what we want to explore together by looking at six different encounters throughout the Bible where the God calls men and women beyond the boxes they find themselves in.

It all starts though with one question, "Are we open to a goodness beyond our control?" 

My hope is that together our concept of what's possible and who the God that calls us gets a lot bigger.

Peace :: Jon