Simultaneously I received a text from my friend who was to meet me at five saying he was just waking up and wasn’t going to be able to make. He was exhausted from painting his new apartment he is moving into this weekend. As I stared at the text and my dashboard I realized this was déjà vu. 

Throughout the past week my life has intertwined with others who are running on empty…emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Maybe because I have lived too many days like that I am more aware of the “check gauge” sign on their forehead. There are plenty of roads to travel in this lifetime, but experience reminds us that most of them lead to destruction.

This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.” Jeremiah 6:16

As I sputtered to the top of the hill I realized this was it. I only had a few minutes to choose the course of the rest of my day. Instead of trying to push through and make it to my destination, I turned toward fuel and retreated toward a source of power.

Many of you may be going through similar choices right now. You are standing at a crossroads and have to choose. Choose life my friends, choose rest for your soul. If not, you will be running on empty.

Go listen Jackson Browne’s Running on Empty for some rest.

Somehow, months later, I stepped over the faith-line, put my hope and trust in Jesus, and promised God that I would never tell the most life giving story (the gospel) in a way that could send guys like me to hell. I refused to be a part of a ministry that would bore people to death with the message of Jesus Christ.

This past weekend was a model and picture of what it can look like to encounter God and experience life! From the exciting worship to the intriguing message, from nachos to jump houses, this weekend offered life! I am so thankful that God continues to bring life to Prairie Lakes Church and continually invites each of us to take another step with Him to reach the Cedar Valley and Iowa!

See, I think it is in the storms that we find ourselves listening for direction; our Doppler radar picks up the intensity changes in our surroundings and we make our next move. Sometimes it is self-preservation, forget those around me, I have to get to the basement! And other times we look at those around us and we help them find their way to safety.

I wonder if this is true in our day to day lives as well. Until there is a storm we don’t really pay much attention to what is going on around us or for that matter, those around us. It’s when the guy next to you on the manufacturing line or the lady in the cubicle behind you shares that there is a storm brewing in their lives, that their marriage isn’t as solid as it seems, that their financial portfolio isn’t everything they said, that our radar goes off and we have to make a choice. Either we can help them find shelter or we can run and hide.

See, I think that as Christians we are called to “Go and make disciples…” This mandate makes us a storm chaser of sorts. Storm chasers are looking for a particular theme or signature of a tornado called a ‘hook echo’. This is how the chaser knows where the twister is located.

Jesus did not seek to save that which had not been lost, he came to enter into the dark and stormy parts of our lives and lead us to salvation. We as partners with him (albeit minority partners) must be willing to enter into the storms of people’s lives and help them find safety. So as a church we need to become very aware that there are dark clouds on the horizon of many hearts and we have to be crazy enough to go after the hook echoes of the heart.

People come in the doors of our church every weekend looking to get away from the whirlwind of life, a week that has been filled with tornadic activity. Who would have known this past weekend we would literally become a shelter from the storm?

 
This past weekend we experienced a storm capable of creating a tornado. (The National Weather Service indicated a tornado spotted just 8 miles SW of our location.) Within moments our First Impressions team sprang into action and helped get hundreds of people and children to safety into the basement, bathrooms and hallways. It was a sight to see!
 

I just want to acknowledge the amazing teamwork and spirit of the volunteers that made this happen. Every weekend our teams gather from all over the campus to rally. Our rallies are more than details and assignments; they are a reminder of why we do what we do. Whether it is the parking team or the teaching pastor we are all there to point people to God. 

 
More on this later…

Well, the other day I took one of my sons out for daddy-time and we ate at Tokyo. This would be his first time. As I sat there and watched Jack be amazed by the ‘ninja’ who chopped our food, I reflected on how we experience things that are new or different than our normal occurrences of life. Here’s where that reflection led me:

It seems each day is a new canvas to paint a different picture of what we have been taught by the world or Saturday morning cartoons (which is where he got the ninja thing). Jack and I sat with wide-eyed wonder as the Asian man prepared our food.

I continue to learn more about myself and the world as Jack asks the tough questions. He simply wants to know why we don’t know kung-fu like them. I told him there was much his daddy didn’t know, but “kung-fu, I think, you can learn Jack.” We have a long way to go before he has mastered the art of kung-fu, but he has now watched Karate Kid and learning, “wax on, wax off.”

As a father, my hope is that by example I can show my boys that there really is no them, but that God loves us all, that there are many things that seem exotic, but really not so much. Sure we are all uniquely made and wired, but we all have more in common than we think.

 Anyway, I took my family to downtown Waterloo this past weekend after Saturday night service for the Iowa Irish Fest and was amazed at the sea of green and the men in kilts! By the way, what I love about men in skirts is their confidence!

 My five year old, Jack, asked me why the boys were wearing skirts. After thinking about it for a second I told him “that it was a tradition that has been passed down from one family member to the next. And some people do things differently than we do.” This was a perfect teaching moment, we talked more about how God loves everybody and whether they had green hair or kilts, God loved them just the same.

 Now, I never told him this part, but as we moved through that sea of people, some Prairielakians, some not, I thought, “Wow, here is a picture of what God is doing at PLC. Doesn’t matter what you look like or what you’ve done, we can take steps together!”

 Check out my boys blending in and taking some rock’n steps in this video below:

After hearing the stories of young men in some of these churches either shooting or being shot at, all I could think about were my sons. Where and when does disconnect happen? What does God have to say about this concept? Is the answer a program? I do not have the answers, but pray that God will reveal our next steps. Until then, I am going to keep it simple and help my sons love God, love people and maybe then they can influence their world.

“Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” – Deuteronomy 6:5-7

This morning I ran into a professor in physics during my regular coffee pilgrimage.  Somehow we started talking about String Theory, an idea in physics to bring the entire Universe under one overriding principle or equation if you will.  He contended that God can’t be that complicated.  I think God keeps it simple, but there is much happening behind the scenes for us to fulfill our destiny.

About a month ago I went on a little trip into the woods.  Camping/fishing/hiking/biking is just a great combination!  While I was out in “solitude” I ran across three men.  Dan is a wrestling coach, who was practicing for Ragbrai.  Mr. Neighbor lives a few blocks down from me.  The Engineer works at John Deere engineer in Waterloo.  All seemed so random over the week, but let me see if there has been a connection…

Dan… sat with me over the fire one night and claimed to be an atheist.  (He did not know I happen to be a pastor.)  So we explored what that meant and he said I could share this statement, “Ron, I have never wondered more about God, if He is real, in the past twelve years than right now.”  I simply asked him to consider journaling while travelling the 300+ miles on Ragbrai and as he rode look for God on the journey.  I will be following up after he gets back to Webster City.

Mr. Neighbor… brought his family out for fun, but it rained pretty hard and it was a short trip for them.  During the day he needed a few things I had and so we talked intermittently.  I threw him for a loop when I had a beer with him.  (I hear pastors don’t do that.)  Anyway, I found out later that he has family at PLC and couldn’t believe that I was a pastor.  Apparently I need to work on my approach or something?  So, we just had that really bad storm that uprooted all those trees in Cedar Falls and my neighborhood.  I lost two good sized trees.  Guess who was knocking on my door with one of his tree removal buddies?  Yep, he introduced me to his friend as “his pastor”.  They wanted to help me, check out the rest of that tree going down in the video below.

The Engineer… was another friendly neighbor over the weekend.  We had just a few interactions and I mentioned I knew a few guys from JD, good guys.  When I mentioned one, he agreed that our mutual friend was a “good guy”.  A week later that Prairielakian emailed me and said those random conversations gave him the “in” he needed to talk about deeper stuff!  Praise God!!!

Ok, so I don’t know if I buy string theory either, but I can’t get away from how everything seems to be connected.  Until we know for sure, let’s be authentic and as Pastor John says, “Be recklessly invitational!”