LEARNING TO SEE/hear/perceive/live CLEARLY

The man replied, “I know nothing about that one way or the other. But I know one thing for sure: I was blind . . . I now see.” (John 9:25)

Jesus then said, “I came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see, and those who have made a great pretense of seeing will be exposed as blind.” (John 9:39)

Naomi Campbell, experimenting with color

This morning I’m throwing in a lighter post. Not that I’m abandoning the ongoing discussion or ignoring some of the new questions and comments. But, as I pointed out yesterday, this blog is always about what is touching my spirit, and what I’m learning about “Living like we mean it” on a day-to-day basis.

So, when I turned on my computer, this image (above) reached out and grabbed me. It’s classic “Naomi Art” inasmuch as it is a completely free expression. Our daughter is always more interested in the process, in color, and in texture than fussing over details.

It’s not so much that Naomi is against realism in art, it’s more that she sees things differently.

My favorite Naomi sunflower

WRITING and ART: I believe that writing can have the same dynamic. People often ask me, “Where do you get your stories?” or “You had to have made that up! or “I’ve been there (Mt. Sinai, Pyramids, Walmart, wherever…) too but I never had that experience….”

You see there’s an extent to which writing can be impressionistic, or abstract in the same way that painting can. When you look at a painting by Naomi you understand that she actually sees things differently. I believe it can be the same way when I write.

JESUS: Jesus was always suggesting to people that they get their equipment checked. He pointed out numerous times how people didn’t see… didn’t hear… didn’t listen… didn’t perceive…didn’t understand… didn’t remember… didn’t “get it.”

Don’t you know or understand even yet? Are your hearts too hard to take it in? ‘You have eyes—can’t you see? You have ears—can’t you hear?’ Don’t you remember anything at all? (Mark 8)

That’s one reason I try to spend both quality and quantity time with Jesus each and every day. The Great Teacher fine tunes my senses. Jesus opens the eyes of my heart.

Life is a great story!

SPLASH! So if I want to write with a splash of color like Naomi’s painting, then I have to stay with Jesus. I have to have my senses enhanced by the Spirit. I must remember that the heart of creativity is always the heart of the Creator.

So “No, I don’t make stuff up…” But I am learning to give my creative soul to Jesus, and to see the beauty and the light and the glory of this life-charged life.

- DEREK

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by derekmaul on May 30, 2012  •  Permalink
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Q & A on the ongoing “sexism in church” discussion…

Q & A: OKay, as promised, I’m going to respond to a few of the comments/questions/opinions/observations shared in response to my post about sexism this past weekend. I always try to keep these entries between 300 and 1,000 words, so I know I will not begin to cover everything. Hopefully, though, this will be helpful.

First, from my friend Adam: “While not espousing one position or another, I wonder how you would respond to those who point out the various places in scripture, particularly in Paul’s writing, where gender lines are clearly drawn both in ministry and public life?”

I’ll begin by borrowing (my wife) Rebekah’s oft-used phrase, “What else does the Bible say?”

Tim Black and Rebekah Maul – shared leadership in a vibrant community of faith!

PROOF-TEXTING: Look hard enough and you can find verses of scripture to back up just about any position we might like to take on just about any issue. It’s called “proof-texting” and there’s almost no limit to its application – often for opposing sides of the same argument!

There are verses to support stoning (women, children, homosexuals etc.), rape, racism, benevolence, intolerance, tolerance, slavery, incest, pacifism, war-mongering, peace, unconditional love, divorce, reconciliation, fidelity, infidelity, human sacrifice, women in leadership, male-only leadership, keeping women silent, allowing women to speak… and so much more.

In other words, the Bible can be manipulated to support just about anything we want to say, good, bad, reasonable or outrageous.

God’s word is a unified witness to life-giving and invitational love

WOMEN: Paul, for example, writes that women should keep silent in church and wait to ask their husbands to explain things to them when they get home (the problem was actually about listening, translating from the Greek, who knew Greek – typically men involved in commerce – and too many questions; rather than the fact that they were women…).

In another epistle, Paul says that women should keep their heads covered when they speak in church. So, which one is it? Speak? Not speak? Speak with heads covered?

It’s important that we have a sense of what’s going on in the entire biblical witness. How is the message of God’s radical love – and God’s challenging call for both justice and righteousness – developed over literally centuries of prophesy, and history, and narrative, and poetry, and sermons, and prayers and more?

What cultural overlays, and religious systems, and social norms, and business ethics have shifted? And what methods of life and modes of communication have grown, and re-calibrated, and evolved, and literally contradicted themselves? What may have potentially changed – even if just a little – between the earliest ancient Jewish texts and the Revelation of John… and then down through two thousand more years of evolving mores, values, and styles of getting God’s essential message across?

Surely no-one in the Southern Baptist Church is going to argue that we should stone children who are disrespectful to their parents? Surely no Catholic Priest still advocates the keeping of slaves? or owning/having more than one wife? or that we should slaughter every inhabitant of a town that is captured in a military action? So why place the weight of powerful institutions behind restrictions on the role of women that are rooted more in historical cultural practices than the content of the Word of God?

THE CONSTANT OF GOD’s FAITHFUL LOVE: What hasn’t changed is the constant thrust of The Greatest Story Ever Told. And that is the story of God’s generous and invitational love, and God’s desire that human beings live life to the fullest expression of what is possible among those created in the very image of God:

“So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)

The thrust of the witness of The Greatest Story Ever Told is God’s constant invitation for us to participate in this “Life-Charged Life.” To the extent that we restrict, exclude, carve out special privileges for some and deny them to others (based on sex, race, income, nationality, etc…), we are at odds with God’s foundational program.

Always inspired and challenged by the Word

ENOUGH FOR TODAY! OKay, so that’s probably enough for today. I may pick up some of the other good observations tomorrow, or later this week – but this blog is a moving target and I can’t say what will yank my chain tomorrow morning!

Regardless, I want all of you to talk seriously with God about these issues, and to be open to the life-charged initiative of God’s transformational love. And ask yourselves this question: “How could it possibly advance the kingdom of God’s love and grace to exclude half the population from leadership (and key decision-making) simply because they are not men?”

Really… how impossibly absurd is that?

Peace – DEREK

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by derekmaul on May 29, 2012  •  Permalink
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honoring the cost of freedom by living like we mean it (more and better life)

There’s a lot to talk about this morning. First, there’s the ongoing conversation vis-a-vis this weekend’s post about sexism in Christianity. Then there’s the fact that today is Memorial Day. So I’m going to write about Memorial Day and we’ll pick up the other conversation possibly tomorrow.

Image from the Arlington National Cemetary website

“I came so [you] can have real and eternal life, more and better life than [you] ever dreamed of.” – Jesus: John 10:10

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN: Rebekah asked our friend Jim Edwards to bring the message at church yesterday. Jim – who attends First Presbyterian with his family – is a Navy chaplain with a lot of experience and wisdom to go with his deep faith. He shared an illustration from the movie Saving Private Ryan that turns out to be the perfect bridge between Memorial Day and the idea of living a life-charged life.

The movie, based on a true account from WW2, picks up private Ryan’s story after his three brothers are all killed in action. Six soldiers are commissioned to find Private Ryan and to bring him safely away from the front lines. Eventually Ryan is saved, but five men die in the effort.

Later, toward the end of his life, Private Ryan visits the grave site in Northern France. He looks at the names of the five soldiers who died so that he could live and he asks his wife the following question (paraphrased). “Am I a good man? Has my life honored the sacrifice of those who died?”

LIVE LIKE WE MEAN IT: Of course it’s a question we can all ask on a day like Memorial Day. “”Does my life honor the cost of those who gave everything to secure my freedom?”

Or, thinking about faith, “How could I do anything other than live with passion and purpose in response to what Jesus has done for me?”

Living like we mean it is the least we can do. It can also be the most we can do. Regardless, it is the best that we can do.

Jesus told this simple story, but they had no idea what he was talking about. So he tried again. “I’ll be explicit, then. I am the Gate for the sheep. All those others are up to no good—sheep stealers, every one of them. But the sheep didn’t listen to them. I am the Gate. Anyone who goes through me will be cared for—will freely go in and out, and find pasture. A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of. – John 10

 - DEREK
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by derekmaul on May 28, 2012  •  Permalink
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Sexism is an epic contradiction of God’s way

God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die.  God did not send his Son into the world to condemn its people. He sent him to save them! (John 3:16-17)

Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream. (Amos 5:24)

Live the truth of the Gospel of love!

SEXISM: This week I’ve been thinking about the progress our culture had made over the past few decades regarding justice, and in particular the role of women both inside and outside of the home.

In many ways there is a lot to cheer about. But at the same time I’m concerned because I still see so much chauvinism and inequality in places that hold the affections and guide the lives of people who really should know better.

  • First, I don’t believe the “glass ceiling” has been shattered or removed so much as adjusted – maybe raised a little in a few places.
  • Then, disturbingly, there’s an active moving backward in much of fundamentalist religion that isn’t content to simply devalue women at church; it reaches to the core of society via adherents’ influence in families, businesses, civic organizations and politics.

STORY: One reason this is on my mind is a story I’ve been working on this week. It’s about a woman called to ministry in her mid-40′s. She told me about an abusive church environment (she and her husband eventually left) that imposed subservience on women rather than inviting discipleship. Her experience laid the groundwork for a distorted image of God that was negative, restrictive, and chauvinistic.

Eventually she learned the truth about love and grace and was able to hear God’s call to ministry. One of her key motivations now is to serve Jesus in such a way that people are introduced to the God who is invitational and permission giving rather than the image presented in the trappings of chauvinism, condemnation, and fear.

Unfortunately, many churches still nurture an ethos that both marginalizes women and encourages men to stake out an authority (read “domination”) both at church and at home that is anything but equal or Christ-like.

LANGUAGE: As a writer, I pay attention to language. Recently I’ve been shocked to note what seems like a widespread reversion to the sexist phrasings of yesteryear. I hear it on television (commercials and shows), on the radio, in conversation, and especially in religion. Gender-exclusive language does exactly that – it excludes women. And exclusive language is so easy to avoid that there’s really no excuse for anyone to use it after all these years – unless they really do intend to make a point about women.

Here’s one example. I clicked on the website of one of the largest churches in town, and this is just a small sample of what you get under, “What we believe” (boldface added so you can easily see):

  • The Bible… was written by MEN who were divinely inspired. It is God’s revelation of Himself to MAN…
  • The Holy Spirit… He enables MEN to understand God’s truth…
  • Mankind… MAN was created by the special act of God… In the beginning MAN was innocent… By his free choice, MAN sinned against God…  By his nature MAN is sinful… Only the grace of God can bring MAN back into a relationship with God.

The words we listen to and the phrases we speak help to structure the way that we think; the way we think affects the content of our consciousness; the architecture of our consciousness/cognition plays out in the way that we formulate ideas…and believe… and act… and impact the world… and raise our children….

CULTURE: In these kinds of religious institutions a mindset has evolved (it’s the product of decades and in some cases centuries) that has somehow engrafted the values, priorities, prejudices, and closed-mindedness of a historically male-centric culture onto the values and priorities of God. It has tried to establish the small-mindedness of just a few people as interchangeable with the character of God.

  • Yet the Bible is full of examples of God using women to lead God’s people – from the judge Deborah to many of the key players in the early church (including Priscilla, Aquila, Lydia, Phoebe and Philip’s daughters…).
  • And the biblical narrative is the ongoing story of God demonstrating to human beings that God’s way – eventually Christ’s New and Living Way – invites everyone (slave and free, Greek and Jew, male and female) into a full expression of Kingdom life (in which gender has absolutely nothing to do with the way we experience grace and love and redemption and more)….
  • And the radical thrust of the ministry of Jesus was (and is) always to overturn the artificial barriers we like to create to separate ourselves – all of the “isms.”

GOD IS SO MUCH BIGGER THAN THIS: God has always surprised men and women by moving outside and beyond the restrictions and the limitations we chose to impose in order to protect our preferred order of things.

To proclaim Christ with one hand and to willfully restrict the role of women with the other is an epic contradiction! Yet such chauvinism is a central practice in both this nation’s largest protestant denomination (the Southern Baptist Church) and the world’s dominant Christian faith (Roman Catholic) – as well as many other denominations.

God is so much bigger than our limitations

THE RADICAL GOSPEL! If the church is going to position itself in this 21st Century as the conduit for the Gospel, speaking life-charged truth into this broken world, then it has got to move beyond these worn-out positions of exclusion and bigotry. God is so much more creative and life-affirming than a name used to prop up such small, intellectually stunted and culturally rooted inventions as, “We’re men, so we should be in charge.”

I mean really….

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by derekmaul on May 26, 2012  •  Permalink
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Diamond Wedding, Queen Elizabeth, and Family Love

May 24 – 2012 and 1952

CELEBRATION!!! Thursday evening, May 24, Rebekah and I hosted a quiet dinner to mark a monumental and increasingly rare accomplishment. My parents were celebrating 60 years of faithful, committed marriage.

Grace Ellen Watts Kemp and David Frederick Maul were married at Raleigh Baptist church – about 40 miles east of London – in the early afternoon of May 24, 1952. He was 23, and she was only 20.

May 24, 1952

My dad first became interested in his bride-to-be right after he returned from service with the British Army in the late 40′s (He’d been sorting things out in Palestine, and then Greece. I think he may need to go back for a “do-over”). The story goes that David Maul showed up at an inter-denominational prayer event and heard Grace Kemp pray aloud. He didn’t actually see her, but was enchanted with her voice and drawn to her spirit when she prayed.

That’s right, people, love doesn’t get much holier than that!

a nice note from the palace

LETTER FROM THE PALACE: There’s another diamond anniversary going on in the U.K. right now, as Queen Elizabeth II is preparing to celebrate 60-years on the throne of England (June 3). She may have a lot going on right now, but that didn’t stop Her Majesty from remembering my mum and dad, and she honored them with a letter of congratulations (which, I’m sure, masks her disappointment over not snagging David for herself back in the day).

I don’t know what the statistics are, but with the increase in divorce a Diamond Wedding Anniversary is enough of a rarity to justify even the extra postage to Florida. Thanks, Elizabeth R, we appreciate it.

Salmon Phyllo with Spinach sauce

GOURMET: The family Disney cruise was a lot of fun, but Rebekah and I wanted to host a special dinner on the day itself. So I told my parents that I would prepare exactly what they’d like. Mum picked Salmon Phyllo and I searched the Internet for the best looking recipe.

I’ve never handled paper-thin pastry before, but somehow the meal turned out beyond amazing. The “magic” touch was the spinach sauce I prepared to go on top of the fish but still inside the pastry. It involved sauteed shallots and garlic, grated gouda cheese, cream cheese, fresh spinach and a variety of spices. All that with wild rice, mixed vegetables and fresh bread. The recipe difficulty level was described as “adventurous” but it was well worth the hard work.

Hannah took this picture for me

FAMILY: Good food or not, what made the event for my folks was family. My niece Hannah came up from Palmetto, with her husband Andrew and their children, Haley and Hudson.

After dinner my mum sat at the piano and we sang a couple of their wedding hymns, My God I thank thee, who hast made the earth so bright… and O perfect love, all human thought transcending….

Haley and Scout

Listen to these two verses, one from each hymn, and hear them in light of the fact that my brother, Geoff, has only so recently passed away:

I thank thee more that all our joy Is touched with pain; That shadows fall on brightest hours, That thorns remain: So that earth’s bliss may be our guide, And not our chain.

Grant them the joy which brightens earthly sorrow; Grant them the peace which calms all earthly strife, And to life’s day the glorious unknown morrow, That dawns upon eternal love and life.

Grace (Elizabeth R) and David

This is still my prayer for my parents, and for all of us who are committed to the practice of faithful love. I am so grateful for my family, for the witness of love that – while not perfect – is anchored in the perfect love that God shares with us on a day-by-day basis.

In love, and because of love – DEREK

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by derekmaul on May 25, 2012  •  Permalink
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a sound parable

In praise of you, our God,
I will sing a new song,
while playing my harp. (Psalm 144:9)

Starr Taylor piano restoration

Rebekah and I love music. We both grew up singing hymns around the family piano and appreciate pretty much every genre from Handel to Joplin to Puccini to Queen. Rebekah was classically trained, attended Stetson’s school of music to be a concert pianist, and considered music therapy as a career. I dabble on the keyboard, am a fairly decent guitarist, used music extensively in my work with autistic children and learn more every week as I play rhythm in the Praise Band.

Our home sound-system is a hybrid anchored by speakers we purchased in 1980, we have Bose iPod docks in my office and the bedroom, and both vehicles boast state of the art audio. But we still think of the piano my parents gave us for a wedding gift as the heart of music at Maul Hall. So we talked with the music gurus at church and had the best piano tuner-restorer they could recommend tear down our Baldwin Studio Upright and do what was necessary to restore its soul and rediscover the beauty of its voice.

The focus is a little soft in this image. But I think it captures the story I’m telling regardless

STARR TURN: It took Starr Taylor – saintpiano.com – two long visits and most of the tools in his truck to put things right. Now our piano is not only “good as new” but in fact better. The soundboard has mellowed, he replaced worn parts with fittings that have improved over the past 33 years, and he applied his own creative, artistic touch to the fine nuances of tone, timbre (tone color), pitch, action, resonance and more.

I asked Starr if his work was primarily engineering, art, mechanics, or musicianship. What he said, essentially, was “Yes…”

I think it’s a useful metaphor for this ongoing discussion we’re having (via these posts) about “The Life-Charged Life.”

Getting down to the guts

EXPLAIN? I don’t know about you, but like our piano I am not the same as the original model that rolled off the assembly line so many years ago. Some parts have deteriorated, some have snapped, some have lost their elasticity and flexibility, some are on the verge of failing, some – like the sustain pedal a few weeks ago – simply fall off (still talking about the piano…!). And everything – without exception – gets gobbed up with dust, lint, and sticky residue.

Without both preventative maintenance and routine repairs, even a fine-quality instrument becomes compromised; not only out of tune but out of commission.

That’s why it requires mechanical knowledge, engineering expertise, artistic interpretation, bona fide musicianship and the creative application of the entire package to nurture an instrument back from the brink or to keep it in peak working order as time goes by.

A time for breaking down… and a time for restoring

TIME FOR A SERVICE? My intention to live this “Life-Charged Life” as God intends requires a similar application of creativity and fundamental know-how.

Like the piano, I really am subject to wear and tear. Not just physically, but spiritually. If I don’t open up on a regular basis the gunk is just going to accumulate. I need tightening, adjusting, tuning, cleansing, renovating… Love.

And none of this can happen if I remain closed up. Sealed. Inaccessible. Resistant to change. It’s more than the idea of constant refreshment, it’s the principle that inactivity, a closed heart, and the absence of reinvention typically add up to long-term decline and eventual death.

Sing!

There’s a great line from Oliver Wendell Homes that I use in my new book, 10 Life-Charged Words (August 2012). “Alas for those that never sing, but die with all their music in them!”

Thanks, Starr Taylor. Our piano was made to sing and you have helped it find its voice again. We were all created to live a life-charged life, stuffed full with melody by our Creator.

Alas for those who fail to sing.

- DEREK

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by derekmaul on May 24, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by derekmaul on May 24, 2012

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on bullying – opening a discussion

 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” – Mark 12:28-31

Image borrowed from UCLA “writing success” blog

BULLY: This morning I’m going to open a discussion on bullying. I’m not sure what I’m going to say yet, because posting for me tends to involve thinking out loud. But I do know that I’m not interested in a political slant. In fact, I’ll likely upset both Democrats and Republicans because my first point is this: “Bullying is about the misuse of power, and for many of America’s powerful it is second nature.”

Bullying is a coercive transaction between those with power and those without power, in which power overrides the values our culture claims to stand for, such as fairness, justice, decency, equality, respect, kindness etc.

Bullying occurs anywhere where Christ’s commandment to “Love your neighbor as yourself” is not a foundational teaching. And that includes many religious institutions and so-called Christian homes, where religion is used as a tool for control rather than a vehicle for teaching the life-charged principles of the Gospel of Love.

PROBLEM: My concern with the current bullying conversation is that it is too limited. The foundational orientation does not go away just because bullies graduate from school. Bullies tend to transfer the ethos to the way they relate to those with less power in the adult world (often as husbands, teachers, coaches, principals, managers, law enforcement officers, airport security etc. etc.).

So I don’t believe the problem is necessarily “So-and-so was a bully in high school.” So much as, “So-and-so still describes such behavior as ‘hijinks’ or ‘boys will be boys,’ or ‘tomfoolery,’ or ‘we didn’t really hurt him, so no-harm no-foul….’”

In other words, many of the people who hold power as adults still fail to see “what the big deal is.”

And why is that? I believe it’s because even today their knee-jerk response to those with less power remains “Hold their arm behind their back and apply pressure till it hurts and make them do whatever it is that you want them to do.”

WHAT I’D LIKE TO SEE: What I’d like to see is a kind of informal Bill of Rights for the Powerless. The principles really exist already in the text and spirit of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. But too many power-holders act as if those are documents of convenience rather than a practical blueprint for making society work.

Here’s an “on the fly” draft:

  • There is no quirkiness, peculiarity, appearance, orientation or variation from the statistical “norm” that makes any human being less equal, valuable or worthy of respect. So LEAVE THEM ALONE!
  • The foundational right of the individual to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is not subject to the whim of anyone holding power over them.
  • The statement “All people are created equal” is not mitigated by accessibility to money, influence, intellect or brute strength.
  • That right is also not diminished by age. Children are also “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…”
  • The use of power to belittle, coerce, embarrass, detain, frighten, terrorize or otherwise compromise the “all people are created equal” rights of another human being is un-American, and it’s un-American to the very core of our values as a people.

Be excellent to one-another

TRUST: Freedom is predicated on trust, righteousness and mutual respect. In other words, we can’t legislate “nice.” However, we can teach it, and until parents and schools take a more responsible and deliberate interest in the moral development of young people, the United States of America will remain a poor approximation of the society envisioned by the founders.

I’m pushing 700 words, so that’s enough for this preliminary discussion.

Peace (and kindness) – DEREK

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by derekmaul on May 23, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by derekmaul on May 23, 2012

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free to become a servant

My friends, you were chosen to be free. So don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do anything you want. Use it as an opportunity to serve each other with love. Galatians 5:13

Freedom!

his morning I have a grand total of exactly 15 available minutes in which to post today’s entry. Just too much going on! So I’ll keep it straightforward and simple.

The scripture passage, above, jumped out when I ran into it this morning. I love the writer’s take on freedom, and the weight of freedom’s primary benefit – which is opportunity rather than license.

I honestly believe – and this is going to sound potentially “elitist” if I don’t word it correctly – that freedom only works to the extent that we understand its implications and are prepared to embrace the responsibilities that go along with it.

Ergo, and in line with the concern voiced by Paul when he penned Galatians, using our freedom as an excuse to do anything we want to not only impoverishes us, but it devalues the costly initiative that secured our freedom in the first place.

SERVE: There is really only one correct response to the gift of freedom, and that is the ongoing choice to apply our talents, our imagination, and our resources to serving one-another in Christ-like love.

Free to serve; washing the feet of a child in the slums of Cairo’s Garbage City

So my Tuesday challenge is three-fold:

  1. See how many ways you can selflessly serve your family (spouse, children) today.
  2. Reach out in love to at least one person in your faith community.
  3. Deliberately expand your personal initiative of love by one act of service – daily – in your workplace.

Then take an honest assessment. Do I feel more or less free when I park my own agenda and simply serve others?

I am confident that you will be affirmed in every way – DEREK

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by derekmaul on May 22, 2012  •  Permalink
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inspiration and fun with presbyterian youth

“Washed in the water”

Yesterday morning it was Youth Sunday here at First Presbyterian Church of Brandon.

Youth Sunday is all kinds of interesting, and – typically – comes along with mixed reviews vis-a-vis the Presbyterian modus operandi of “decently and in order” (See this week’s unique “children’s moment” skit by Ian and Hunter!).

But worship led by our young people is always inspirational, and this year it was a life-charged experience that both warmed my heart and affirmed my faith.

Every element of worship was youth led, from the prayers to the offering to the readings, the children’s moment and more. Our graduating seniors shared the message, the youth choir led the singing, and we have enough talented young people in the praise band that they carried off the accompaniment too.

During the service, eleven of our 8th graders stood at the front of the church and confirmed their faith. And this is no perfunctory “drive-by” ritual. Rebekah made a big deal of talking about the statements of faith they had shared with the elders, their deep theological understanding, and their passion for the gospel. These are good kids, motivated to serve and to move forward into lives as disciples of Jesus.

Joy spills over!BAPTISM: And then, and this doesn’t happen very often in a church where we baptize infants, Rebekah had the privilege of administering the sacrament of baptism to two of our young people.

Rebekah may “sprinkle,” but when she’s through the person being baptized is not much drier than if they’d been dunked! Doesn’t matter if it’s a baby, an adult, or an adolescent, Rebekah somehow manages what seems like a gallon or so of water cupped in her hands and all over the head (shoulders, neck, lap, back) of the individual in question.

“I don’t know why people always laugh,” she said. “I just want them to know they’ve been baptized – not passed over with a vague hint of a spray.”

Youth-led worship at fpcBrandon

JOY: But it’s more joy than funny that’s putting the big smiles on people’s faces and spilling over into mirth. It’s always a Holy Spirit moment when someone is baptized; but Sunday I could sense it with even more power, the power that just makes us smile, even the most curmudgeonly. God is a God of joy and it was all over the place in the two baptisms.

Worship is all about celebration. It’s about celebrating the fact that God loves us, that we are invited into a restored relationship through Jesus, and that we can live a life that is qualitatively different because of all those “R” words: repentance, redemption, restoration, renovation, reclamation, rejuvenation, reaffirmation, release, reformation….

FOUNDATION: There is a foundational value at the heart of all we do here at First Presbyterian Church of Brandon, and that is “Everything we do comes out of worship.” In other words, worship is at the heart of our life together as a faith community.

8:30 and 11:00 Sunday mornings

This year’s “Youth Sunday” made it obvious that our young people not only understand the importance of worship, and of an active relationship with the Living God, they embrace it.

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow;

Praise Him, all creatures here below;

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;

Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

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by derekmaul on May 21, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in The Church, The Life-Charged Life, The Story
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Posted by derekmaul on May 21, 2012

http://derekmaul.wordpress.com/2012/05/21/inspiration-and-fun-with-presbyterian-youth/

the life that is truly life (live like we mean it)

“The life that is truly life”

Do good, be rich in good deeds, be generous and willing to share. In this way you will lay up treasure for yourselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that you may take hold of the life that is truly life. (1 Timothy 6:17-19)

LIVE LIKE WE MEAN IT: This weekend marks exactly one year since I moved my blog over to WordPress. When I got this site up and running I decided it was time to begin writing around a common theme. The result, I believe, has been a sharpening of my focus.

Bottom line, I want people to know what to expect when they show up at “The Life-Charged Life.”

RE-RUN: Here is the original “life-charged life” post from May of 2011, where I thought out loud about how I wanted this blog to sound. It began with the following question….

Is there an over-arching theme to my writing (I think so)? What – if anything – is the common thread that runs through my words?

It turns out there’s a lot if content that I come back to time and again; here’s a partial list:

  • The Greatest Story ever Told, and most especially how our lives can be a part of that story.
  • My family, simply sharing some of the day-to-day anecdotes that get my attention.
  • I talk a lot about my role as “The Preacher’s Husband.”
  • Related to the clergy-hubby stuff are observations about the living community of faith at First Presbyterian Church of Brandon.
  • Another sub-set of that important theme is my ministry to men.
  • Sometimes I write about the world scene, events from the news that capture my imagination.
  • Then there’s my work, the books and the travel and the speaking engagements…

But – and you can probably tell that I’m thinking out loud here – if I had to shove all this inside one pithy category that might actually spark some kind of a national conversation (something that might move this blog from a curiosity my friends read and into a search-engine tour-de-force), then I wonder what that might be?

It comes down to this: I’m interested in life. I’m particularly interested in how we engage life in the everyday “get up and do it again” rhythm from day-to-day. And I’m most interested in how we can lift that experience from the mundane and the mediocre and into what is possible.

  • I’m talking about the end of half measures. No more “good enough,” or “I guess that will do.”

This is how I put it reads in “GET REAL”:

Mediocrity is a sad curse that threatens to suck the lifeblood from many people, people who might otherwise pursue lives that actually mean something beyond the day in, day out of survival. We all know people who constantly regress to the unremarkable. We may sometimes be tempted to follow that path ourselves. It is too easy to fall into patterns of below average, develop a comfortable rhythm there, and consequently live out our lives without ever pushing any kind of envelope at all. (p 119)

My category, it appears, is “The Life that is truly life”. That’s a concept from Paul’s letter to Timothy in the New Testament. It’s a handle I can live with.

- DEREK

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by derekmaul on May 19, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in The Life That Truly is Life, The Life-Charged Life, The Story
Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Posted by derekmaul on May 19, 2012

http://derekmaul.wordpress.com/2012/05/19/the-life-that-is-truly-life-live-like-we-mean-it/

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