My therapy has been physical therapy due to what Xrays, a surgeon and my own pain feedback assess as the beginnings of an arthritic left hip that shows up when friends call me out saying, “Tom, you’re limping” which I HATE to hear.  I felt the pain over this past summer and only decided to do something after the pain would not quit hurting, and of course, hurt at the most inopportune times like speaking in front of a group.  Yes, I tried self-medicating, popping ibuprofen tablets like M&M’s (not a good idea over the long haul).

If you are the reluctant person or cringe when you hear “therapy” no matter what the type, at least listen a moment to what I’ve learned.  Oh, and being married to a marriage therapist probably makes me more resistant to getting help, thinking I know more than other people (dumb!).

Big insight: buyer beware!  I see lots of ads on late night tv for “exercise equipment.”  At 66 I wasn’t trying for “six pack abs”, just relief from pain.  So far, after reluctantly heading to physical therapy, I’ve bought no equipment, just used a pillow, a bathrobe sash, a belt and a doorway….all of which I already possessed.  While some therapies do cost (time, energy and yes, some money), beware the scam artists.  My biggest outlay?  Rearranging my time.

Second insight: therapy involves training rather than merely trying harder.  I needed new ways to exercise, “stretch and strengthen” muscles, so just walking more or jumping higher (ouch!) would not have relieved pain, no matter how noble my intentions.  A coach, a true physical therapist, helped immensely, and yes, all the exercises seemed simple: I just didn’t know WHAT they were.  Most of us get in trouble because we just make poor choices or “don’t know any better.”  Bad drivers, bad spouses, bad employees or bosses who will admit to needing help often require better training, not more assertive personalities!

Third insight: therapy takes time.  Six weeks into this, last week my physical therapist “let me go,” but true results (lessening pain or learning to exercise, rest and readjust routines) will likely continue to take another couple of months.  Pain management involves gradual miracles, the biggest being I have to be patient.  As my therapist wife is fond of saying to couples who expect instant change, “it took awhile to get into this situation, and it will take awhile for you to get better.”

And my fourth insight: you just have to take a risk once in awhile.  A late mentor once confessed to me, “People prefer the pain of the familiar over the pain of changing or new choices.”  Hmmm.

All to say, I need to stop this and get to my exercises, and they only take about 15 minutes.  Off to get my pillow, sash, belt and lean into a good solid doorway as I do some new stretches.  I hope you find your therapist, coach, mentor, trainer or helper where you need therapy most.

Oh, and I hope you get better, too.  That’s how I see the grace of God today.

“Traditional” in my church culture usually means 1) wearing a pulpit robe, 2) marching down an aisle with the choir…also in robes, 3) using the bulletin to print most of the order, prayers, hymn numbers, and message title, 4) leading a “time for children” which is a brief teaching that often is more engaging to kids and adults than the sermon and (sigh, 5) making too many announcements that usually apply to very small segments of those attending.

This Sunday I’ll politely defy some of that by 1) wearing a suit and tie (yes, a son helped me buy current choices a year ago), 2) walking in to sit “on stage”, 3) trying to create more warmth “off the bulletin” in worship and 4) leading the “time for children”….okay, I can’t fight every tradition. Oh, and I will try desperately to hand off those announcements to a lay leader or just say “read this” while waving the paper bulletin at everyone.

Not having yet seen the locale of the church where I will be, here’s my short unrequested list to church leaders to welcome anyone daring enough to try a modest sized traditional church on a Sunday morning:

1. Vacuum, scrub, repaint, repair or replace anything that “still doesn’t work right” and visitors are likely to encounter.  You are cleaning house for guests, and toilets need to work, the bulletin be legible (and proofread!), and yes, lightbulbs actually turn on.  Extra credit: have quality microphones and a speaker system not made with parts from ToysRUs.

2. Put the local sheriff near the thermostat!  This is to fight every little old lady who seems to think “it’s too cold in here.” Alternative: install a dummy thermostat in a prominent place.  Sorry, that was more a semi-vindictive personal gripe, and I did not check the sheriff’s availabilty…

3. Put people “out front” to hand bulletins and welcome people who actually LIKE welcoming people.  A sour greeter, or ignoring new folk ruins “our great choir”, preaching or even the architecture for any visitors.

4. Give the nursery a second scrubbing, and staff it with a “pleasant nurse nazi” (ancient Tyndall churchese). Also have I.D. nametags, beepers or some way to notify worshipping parents of any child emergency.

5. Spend the extra money to have your bulletin/program printed or done on computer.  Bury the typewriter, that ante-bellum mimeograph machine and tacky church bulletins with decades-old “church art” (Not kidding here!). BTW, spend some bucks or draft an 8 year old and get a church website going that DOES NOT feature your building or sanctuary first, but give us people’s faces, maybe even a story or two about why they love attending that church.

6. Don’t give visitors a hard time about their choice of dress/clothing.  As a former everyone-wear-ties-or-pantyhose (not both!)-to-worship, I’ll admit I’m probably not yet ready to wear “what Jesus would wear to worship”: hold the sandals and toga, please.  While I frequently wear dress jeans to worship these days, I am not about to give other kids, teens, adults, or even retirees the GQ stare even if they missed raiding the Walmart racks just before showing up for worship.  And, now according to a very reliable source, there are still godly guys in East Texas who worship while sporting a mullet, so I hereby resign from the church fashion police.

7. (Ah, seven, that spiritual number) Pray for God to speak to you in such settings.   You, or someone you know, will likely attend a traditional church because of your parents, grandparents, a friend, spouse or significant other, from a latent curiosity, a nagging desperation to hear a good Word outside your circumstances, or even from boredom with your “normal Sunday routine.”  Welcome, and thanks for your effort, even if for just one Sunday.

Oh, and if we meet on Sunday, I’ll try not to act disengaged.  After all, that’s just not part of my own tradition.

Never heard of this 90 year old Anglican rector and author?  He’s influenced thousands of Christians over the past 5 decades.  Include me.  This British scholar priest wrote booklets, tomes, spoke on Scripture, discipled a lot of college students through his works, was Chaplain to the Queen of England, and cared both for individual faith and social justice.

I’m not one to touch the hem of the garment of many well-knowns, but the man known as “Stotty” was one with whom I actually got a face-to-face breakfast about 30 years ago at a conference.  A friend, now seminary professor, Mark Labberton, served as one of Stott’s assistants while doing graduate work in Great Britain some years back, and he saw a winsome man whose passion for faith influenced friend Mark toward pastoring and now teaching other pastors.  Impressive.

Good pastor friend Ron Scates in Dallas, Texas now informs me that he will coordinate a memorial service for John Stott some time either August 27th or 28th.  I suspect there will also be a memorial “across the pond” in his native England as well.

Stott’s passing probably represents the closing of an era as well.  Campus Crusade late founder Bill Bright, late Senate Chaplain Richard C. Halverson and the now 92 year old Billy Graham in declining health all come from an era where “evangelical faith” emerged from the constrictions of a narrow, judgmental rigid faith to a Christianity that engaged thought, reflection, concern for those without resources, and John R.W. Stott often found himself the reluctant leader of much of that spiritual inertia.  Maybe it helped that Stott never married, setting him free to spend chunks of time writing, traveling and interacting with other leaders along with giving a sizeable influence through his books and conference speaking.

My takeaway from Stott’s life?  Go the distance.  Finish well in ministry and in life, and yes, lean on God regularly in every season.  Oh, yes, I’m glad I’m married, have grown children and grandchildren, and love the ministry I’ve enjoyed for better than four decades.  In a day when leaders, especially Christian leaders, often abuse resources, step over relational boundaries or just give up exhausted, whether single or married, solo Stott kept his integrity as his influence widened, then even as he quietly pulled back from worldwide influence as health issues increasingly confined him to his native England.

You and I may not live with such extremes to manage, and I doubt that Stott ever envisioned a worldwide stage on the horizon.

A biblical text comes to mind that yet another friend sent a few days ago: 2nd Samuel 3:38 “Do you not know that a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel?” I think I finally met a truly Godly prince one morning at a breakfast.  He did finish his reign well in life.  In death. And now he reigns over death due to a Savior he loved and served wisely.

Thanks be to God for His princely pastor Dr. John R. W. Stott.

It was my choice.  Yes, four tickets the first four months of this year shocked and jostled me to do this, not a court order.  Yes, I could try to easily rationalize each offense. I’ll spare you all that and the total costs, though my license quickly got [only] 8 points.  I even sought the advice of a police friend….who laughed at me and quipped, “I didn’t know that your retirement would lead you to a life of crime, Tom!”  Not funny, but sobering.  I knew it was time for me to reassess my driving skills, even after 50 years of near ticket-free “careful” driving.

I went dreading those unending, boring lectures, gory auto accident films, a cramped seat and a disinterested presenter.  Imagine being delightfully disappointed on all counts!  The videos were more about victims’ shake-us-up testimonies, including one “I don’t get it perp”, not gory accident pix.  We were given lots of potty breaks, thankfully.  I was by far the oldest one in my class of 30 folks and the only “volunteer” as the others, including a father and son combo, had all been court-ordered to show or face suspended driver’s licenses.  Not a happy crowd.

Takeaways?  One eye-opener was how to face a head-on collision, also finding that child car seats have an expiration date stamped on them and a shelf life of about six years, so my “grandpa chauffeur” status may get a car seat makeover.  I also realized afresh I get easily distracted while driving.  No, I don’t shave, anymore, but I do eat, drink, fiddle with my radio and a/c a bit too much while driving.  Or I did.

I also got reminded that driving is NOT competitive (except on race tracks) but more cooperative which means letting slow, distracted or raging drivers go by and creating a safe, undistracted atmosphere INSIDE my car for me and any passengers.

I hope I can drive at least another ten years.  I dread losing that….privilege (I almost wrote RIGHT.)  The cost?  Driving takes my full attention when I do it.  Like writing these words, I can’t have a phone ringing, loud music blaring or being doing other things while I do this.

I graduated, too.  Passed the final test, at least the one on paper.  I also drove home with a different, more cautious attitude.  So if you see me driving slower while I “scan” intersections,  know that I know a few things about driving I’d forgotten.  I’ll keep servicing my car, set the GPS and media before I get rolling, try to be a cooperative driver, and assume others are not fresh from traffic school even when I suspect they need to be.   And I’ll work more to enjoy the privilege of driving.

If driving is not your issue, what is?  Where are you fighting distractions, rage, bad equipment, or you are in a big hurry? 

I’ll risk saying that God blessed me as I volunteered to spend a day in school, learning afresh what I spend a lot of time doing.

For eight hours I got a good education, and no one was harmed in the making of my Saturday.

Why is telling the truth so hard for us?  Some would say we gave up the concept of “truth” a few decades back, that all truth is now relative, based on personal experience rather than an outside objective source and that truth is just a synonym for acting narrow-minded, judgmental or exclusivistic.   Maybe in some settings that’s so.

I think we know deep down when we hit what the late Francis Schaeffer once dubbed “true truth.”   Gravity, paying taxes, finishing my to-do list or Betty’s next project can only be put off so long.

What I see is that we just don’t like to tell the truth because….we fear the consequences.  Consequences?  Call it payback, justice, reaping what you sow or just being accountable for acting unwisely.

I fear the truth because I don’t want to face consequences.  House repairs, car oil changes, replacing my broken water heater or paying taxes stare me down not as “relative,” but “eventual.”  Jesus once said “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.“  Yes, but not if you won’t admit there IS truth to be known, admitted or even welcomed.

So, when you and I are tempted to evade, shade the truth, rationalize, justify what you know to be unhealthy or stiffarm “advice,”  let’s all yell at each other “WATCH OUT!”  When many products increasingly now contain “warning labels,” I need to ask where’s mine?

Telling the truth, when it’s done in a healthy manner, isn’t condemning, acting aloof or thinking yourself better than others.  It means, with apologies to an old tv show, sharing “truth and the consequences,” something I watch my children now share regularly with THEIR children, my treasured grandchildren.

Face what you need to, before others tell you to, if possible.  Listen, understand and respond wisely.  Admit what you know others know.  And find a freedom, a health and a clearer vision of how to live well.  It’s called integrity.

As much as I appreciate Facebook, after recent events, you don’t need an errant Facebook shot or one-liner to find you out.

And that’s the truth.

I have found a few magazines are now available as apps, venerable old MOTOR TREND MAGAZINE for starters.  I’m pushing my five decades of mainstay reading MODEL RAILROADER MAGAZINE to get apps-ly going as well.  Should I dare bump trusty, crusty CHRISTIANITY TODAY because their news reporting and interviews ARE excellent?  Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve bought my last three books for my Kindle app.  What am I going to do with those things that I once called bookcases?

And on the other side of medialand, I just went to a sidelined/mainline denominational church meeting this past week.  For six long hours.  In a beautiful old sanctuary that was warm, inviting, almost holy.  Until I heard the microphones and speakers begin to burp.  Strictly Fisher-Price parts bin quality.  My old clock radio sounds better, but I’ve not turned it on in months: no place to plug in my megabass earphones. I almost filled out one of those pew-scrunched “Visitor Cards” to speak truth to the powers that (need to) be.

Somewhat sadly, or financially, you and I realize we are now sloshing around in an age where our cellphones, laptops and internet service may all experience turnover every couple of years.  I cleverly counter this by keeping my cars a decade or more.  It once was vice versa.  Betty thinks it’s now strictly vice.  Mine.

Then I hear from grandparent types that they “don’t need no [sic] computer,” while they still armwrestle their VHS programming menu. I truly apologize for old people everywhere.  Even the AARP can’t budge the apps-challenged.  Their churches could just be making the culture shock out of some ecclesiastical relic called a mimeograph machine (here’s to purple ink!).

Where is all this—media, my blog, the loans necessary to upgrade—-headed?  I’ve no idea…except, those who don’t flex or read culture accurately are likely to be sidelined and wonder what happened, especially to good causes or ideas.  And, spiritually if you are interested, I am now struggling afresh to learn that biblical value of contentment.  To say, “THIS tech toy is enough, this app will suffice….for now.”  One thing is growing larger…my power surge strips, now scattered like yesterday’s newspapers throughout my house.

Interested futurists: will those of us choosing to go beyond high school embrace degree letters behind our names that simply say “APPS”?

Meanwhile, my 4 year old grandson just blistered my hide in “Angry Birds HD RIO.” I am further humiliated by the laughter of cartoon cardinals.

My grandson remains amused and hopeful: he’s probably got my next app hardwired into his earbud.

NOT live: that’s why God allowed DVRs to be invented.  I do also have a 10 year old granddaughter who wants to see what a “princess wedding” really looks like, but not at 3 AM CDT.  Picture me scheduling a “wedding watching party” for sometime this weekend.

Having done something in excess of 400 weddings in my pastoral life, I have a few opinions.  Having now seen this one, I’ll offer a personal assessment of why half the world got up/tuned in/DVR’d this wedding:

1. The world LOVES spectacle.  As I write this, much of this nation, and Alabama in particular, is cleaning up after record numbers of tornadoes, record death totals and communities flattened.  Does “The Royal Wedding” offer any counterbalance that we also need to par-TEEE?  Do we miss spectacle when we don’t get it….at a rock concert, in worship, in a Friday night get together?

2- Americans are still fascinated with the British.  Even our flags have the SAME THREE COLORS!  We don’t have official royalty, but we almost wish we did as we watch our Mother Country go pomp and circumstance all over the world.

3- For all their reputed “properness” the Brits still throw a great party!  For women, it has now become about the HATS (eat your hearts out, Kentucky Derby debs!).  Grab a bouquet, potted plants, or a four course salad—whatever fits on a head tray “glams” you up.  And for guys?  It is so now about the UNIFORM.  Both William and Harry look like they’ve been basted in medals and ropes.  Any military types reading this, PUT your dress uniform on TODAY and wear it somewhere.  Or go get a hat.  We will gawk admiringly.

4- Black remains forever “in” and “cool.”  On suits, dresses, cars (Car and Driver Magazine, please do an article on the royals’ limos, SUVs and trucks!).  Black also counterbalances the radically over-stitched clergy garb.  I mean, would Jesus really do that much gold brocade?  Or, honestly, am I just a bit jealous that I have no cape, no block-your-view hat and not even one liturgical weapon to point at people when I need order?

5- This wedding made media sense.  Did I see a big screen at least NEAR Westminster Abbey?!  LOTS of trumpets, a great choir, hymns with grit to their lyrics that people SANG, enough horses and carriages to add texture to the long lines of vehicles.  Next time a praise band?  If this be Anglicanism, maybe there’s hope for the (my tribe) Presbyterians yet.  And the wedding prayer, in part composed by the Royal Couple, sounded almost like….wow, a PRAYER: thankful, honoring love and marriage and addressed to a God and to His Son who seemed invited as Supreme Officiant.  Just as wild was the chairs set up in part where family armies faced each other.  How refreshingly radical.

6- Conjecture here, but I think THIS marriage may mean more than just the wedding day.  And may last.  While I might wish a do-over on some of the living arrangements’ history, I’ll tip my wished-for-British-white-wig to the royals for getting to know each other, know a bit of royal expectations, pressures, and privileges.  I hope they also nurture the faith, conflict skills, dreams and comebacks that go with all those sobering wedding vows.

7- [Ah, biblically perfect number!] I am glad that we are still fascinated with weddings even as we remain mystified by “marriage” and how to make marriage more durable.  In a day where “a relationship” seems the measure of all things without a warranty, to fasten on two people half a world away saying out loud to millions the words that indicate I want to do life with you, I see a future with you, I am even committed to grow old with you, those markers signal deeper stuff at work here.

So, now Duke William and Duchess Kate, Mr. and Mrs. Royal Couple, you other marrieds, you “in relationships” and you “in recovery,”  I wish you all God’s incredible wonder, guidance, safety, forgiveness, challenges and hang-on-ness to the True Royal who shows up frequently at weddings as the Prince of Peace.

Quite a lure, this wedding, and I’m glad I can now view it at my somewhat tech savvy leisure.

Oh, and thanks be to God.

I tried in several settings as head of staff to get church offices closed AT LEAST on Monday, preferably the entire week, following Easter (in many churches, Easter week is now busier than Christmas time).

My point?  Unless you have an emergency, let church staff alone this week.  Or take them all out to lunch.  Order them to go home early.  Padlock the church doors if you have the authority.

Larger takeaway to staff and Easter attendees: review your pacing.  Take a REAL day off every week.  Take your vacation/study leave/holidays and rest.  No, retirement is not the cure for this (I was worn out from Easter travels, family hosting, attending two churches, emergencies, and I did not even preach).

Need evidence?  Even the resurrected Jesus Himself appeared quietly to just a few folks in the days immediately following…and, dare I say it, He was/is GOD.  If you are feeling a bit less than God today, consider your current pacing.

The hope of Jesus turning death around is that everything gets remade…death, life and yes, the expectations I put on myself, the battles with evil I fight and the need to be needed.

Work, worship and play.  That’s resurrected pacing.  Jesus spent time in a garden, visited a fish fry, appeared in a room with friends and THEN began to appear to crowds.  Does that sound like frantic to you?  How about refreshing?  Maybe even a new beginning?

Happy Post Easter week, friends.  Now, does your smartphone, iPad or laptop calendar show that? 

What needs to happen?

Phillips said he felt like an electrician working with wiring while the power was still on.

Saywhaaaa?

So, if you don’t read the Bible, or you’re skeptical of the Bible, or even if you think you’ve got most of it nailed down flat, especially biblical inspiration, authority, the grammar, etc., that picture pretty much summarizes how I’d like to be able to come to every passage of Scripture I face.  And its surprising effect on my life.

Scary, eh?  Helpful, too?  Now I wonder if I’ve been reading the insulated translation.

My sidetracked point?  What I dread are the debates, harangues and attacks we all have to endure. Actually, I’d love some honest debates.  I also wish that Christians were exempt from attacks and attacking each other, but now I read that Rob Bell’s latest book has gotten bloggers’ britches in a wad….I haven’t read his book, so no comments here.

Whatever happened to civil debates? Where’s the exchange of honest viewpoints, thoughtful sparring and even, to quote Proverbs “iron sharpening iron”?  Debates today look more like chipping away, whacking, dismembering and amputation when people differ.

Here’s what I’d like, borrowing an example from one pastor/author Earl Palmer who like me, loves the late C.S. Lewis:

“Lewis was a master at letting the truth of the gospel weave its way into people’s lives, giving people room to discover its truth.  A man who had liked his Screwtape Letters went on to read Mere Christianity, and he was infuriated.  He wrote Lewis a scathing letter.

“Yes, I’m not surprised, ” [Lewis] wrote back, “that a man who agreed with me in Screwtape….might disagree with me when I wrote about religion.  We can hardly discuss the whole matter by post [snail mail to us non-Brits], can we?  I’ll only make one shot.  When people object, as you do, that if Jesus was God as well as man, then he had an unfair advantage which deprives him for them of all value, it seems to me as if a man struggling in the water should refuse a rope thrown to him by another who had one foot on the bank, saying, ‘Oh you have an unfair advantage.’ It is because of that advantage that he can help.

“But all good wishes.  We must just differ; in charity, I hope.  You must not be angry with me for believing, you know; I’m not angry with you.” Says Palmer concluding, “Lewis responds by giving him but one thing to think about, and then steps back.”

It’s then that man’s move to continue a journey of discovery.  If he wishes.  How…very…civil.

And how needed for leaders.  Or you and me, especially people who say we love God.  No annihilation here, even though strong my convictions may be.

I think I actually want to win people more than debates.  How about you?