Weblog
28/07: Stuck Inside These Four Walls
I spend much of my time at home with my family. My wife spends even more of her time at home. With two young kids, we can often feel stuck at home. Stuck is probably too negative of term, but I am sure most parents feel stuck now and then.Most people spend a lot of time in their house and there are so many chores to do inside those four walls. It is often difficult to feel spiritual when you are washing dishes or taking out the trash. I question whether God is calling me to do more than change diapers or read the same old stories, time and time again, to my kids.
Do you ever question your connection or devotion to God when you spend so much of your day doing the mundane? I know I do.
Let me tell you about a Brother Lawrence. He was assigned to the monastery kitchen where, amidst the tedious chores of cooking and cleaning at the constant bidding of his superiors, he developed his rule of spirituality and work. For Brother Lawrence, the mundane or routine was the medium of God's love. The issue was not the sacredness or worldly status of the task but the motivation behind it. "Nor is it needful that we should have great things to do. . . We can do little things for God; I turn the cake that is frying on the pan for love of him, and that done, if there is nothing else to call me, I prostrate myself in worship before him, who has given me grace to work; afterwards I rise happier than a king. It is enough for me to pick up but a straw from the ground for the love of God."
This is something I must learn. When I wash dishes, I can thank God for the food we had today. I can thank God for clean water. I can pray for those who are hungry and have no clean water. When I mow the lawn, I can pray for our neighbors. I can pray for their needs and how God might be able to use me to point them toward Him.
How sad it is that I still tend to separate the spiritual from the mundane. To God, everything is spiritual. And if everything becomes spiritual, then there is no mundane.
Have a God filled week,
Dan Todd
Discipleship and Small Groups
St Marks UMC
16/06: My World is a Flood
I am sitting in church Sunday morning, but I am having a difficult time concentrating on the message. I sit there in my brand new father's day shirt with a few hundred people in their Sunday best and I can't help but think about Cedar Rapids.Before my family moved to Lincoln, we lived in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. So, it really wasn't surprising my thoughts were on them this Sunday morning. Are my friends safe? What is going on at the church we were part of? How is everyone holding up? How much have they lost?
I can't help but wonder what our lives would be like if we were there? Where would we be if we were still there? Would we be safe? Would we have a home? How much would we have lost? Would I be helping others through my employment at The Salvation Army ?
And I was just complaining about a little water in my basement a couple weeks.
We all face floods in our lives. Jesus told us that it rains on the just and the unjust. Something will happen and our world will fall apart. Someone close to us will die or a financial crisis will come or a natural disaster will hit. You are going to have a flood or two in your life.
Are you ready? Am I ready? Can one ever be ready? Maybe you can't totally prepare, but you can know where to turn when the storm hits, because it will hit.
"Rain, rain on my face
It hasn't stopped raining for days
My world is a flood
Slowly I become one with the mud
But if I can't swim after forty days
And my mind is crushed by the thrashing waves
Lift me up so high that I cannot fall
Lift me up
Lift me up - when I'm falling
Lift me up - I'm weak and I'm dying
Lift me up - I need you to hold me
Lift me up - keep me from drowning again"
(Words by Jars of Clay)
Have a God filled week and say a prayer for Cedar Rapids and the flood victims in Iowa.
Dan Todd
Discipleship and Small Groups
St Marks UMC
09/06: A Manly Man or a Godly Man
First of all, let me apologize to all the women out there for writing a blog about being a man. Hopefully, you can glean something or just forward it to a man who might benefit from it.I have been thinking about what it is like being male in our society, specifically a Christian male. With Father's Day just around the corner, now seems to be a good time to jot some thoughts down.
The statistics about men seem to be a bit sobering. We commit most of the violent crimes including 100% of the rapes. We commit 95% of the burglaries, 94% of drunken driver incidents and 70% of the suicides. What is our problem?
I guess we are rebellious by nature. Every TV show has at least one male character who displays these dominant traits. Throw in a strong sex drive and you have man in his full glory (or should that be "gory"). We are a combination of James Bond, the Hulk and Homer Simpson.
But is that just the way we are? Is that what God made us to be? I hope not. I think we can do better. I think I can do better. Maybe we can be arrogant. Wouldn't you think that our sex drive and knack for finding trouble would bring us to our knees? Shouldn't we realize that without the Spirit of God in our lives, our sinfulness will bring us down a road to pain and destruction?
Being a man is a great thing. God gave us all types of manly, man qualities. But Jesus was a manly man. He knew how to be the hero. He knew when to stand His ground. He knew how to lay down His life. Maybe the incarnate God in the flesh became man because men desperately needed a role model. Seeing Jesus as an example is our hope.
O.K. guys, we can do better. We can still be manly and be holy at the same time. God has not called us to just sit in a church pew or on the couch at home. We have got a battle to fight. Now where did I leave that sword?
Happy Father's Day!
Dan Todd
Discipleship and Small Groups
St Marks UMC