Bo Stern

I’m right in the middle of reading The Shack by William Young. This book is just unlike anything I’ve ever read. It’s absolutely exploding through the book world and I tell you: you gotta read it! It’s very difficult to describe, which makes it all the more miraculous that it’s soared to the top. The reason for it’s great popularity, I believe, is that it deals with going to the dark and painful places of your history, and meeting God there. While it’s official genre is “religious fiction”, it’s very prophetic in addressing the stuff we keep hidden in the back rooms of our lives that are secretly shaping and distorting our picture of who God is.

Pick it up at Barnes and Noble and let me know what you think. I promise it’ll challenge you and mess with your thinking…don’t give up on it, though. I think it’s a really important book for everyone who’s ever been hurt or felt abandoned.

I recently read one theologian’s viewpoint on why women should not teach, preach or pastor. Turns out, it all goes back to that crazy apple (I Tim. 2:8-15). Eve was deceived and ate the apple and disqualified every other woman from ever having significant insight to impart to a man, henceforth and forever. Amen. So be it. Selah.

It’s interesting to note how many other scriptures have to be eliminated or re-invented in order to build a whole philosophy on I Timothy 2:14. These include Galatians 3:28, Ephesians 4:12 (“the” and “saint” are gender-inclusive words so Paul is saying, “Equip men and women for the work of the ministry”), as well as all the Biblical accounts of women who did amazing things like Deborah, Jael, Miriam, Huldah, Esther, Phoebe &Priscilla. (He mentions these women, but says they’re too rare to establish a pattern. Sigh. Don’t even get me started, Mr. Theologian.)

Anyway, I’m not here to duke this one out…just interested in how we arrive at our opinions. Most people I know who have disqualified women from leadership would not really be able to tell you why. They usually have picked a comfortable viewpoint without applying much muscle to analysis and you’ll generally discover a wide load philosophy teetering on the tiny shoulders of I Timothy 2. (If you wonder how I know this, you’re welcome to stand next to me on a Sunday after I speak and listen to the conversations that ensue.)

It’s taken a long time for me to build a philosophy as well. I’m blessed to be married to a man who loves what God is doing in my life as much as he loves it in his own. I’m also grateful to have a pastor who frees me to speak without fear of reprisal or rebuke. If these human men in a fallen world want that much for me…wouldn’t my Father in heaven want even more? Or am I – 2000 years after the greatest act of redemption and release in all of history – still silenced by an apple?

Luke 2:36-38 (The Message)

Luke 4:40-41 When the sun went down, everyone who had anyone sick with some ailment or other brought them to Him. One by one He placed his hands on them and healed them.

I love the words, “one by one”. Earlier in the chapter, Satan offers Jesus many ways to use and demonstrate His power and all of them involve some kind of mass-produced, impersonal result. Jesus refused to wield His power apart from relationship. He is focused on the needs of each individual and His relationship to them is critical to His “Lord of All” character. Clearly, He could have waved His arms and healed everyone and fixed everything, but He instead insisted upon demonstrating that He is the God of every person…not just the God of mankind. This awareness builds the groundwork upon which we construct our understanding of His most powerful act of all. As we watch Him take the long walk to the cross, we know that this is not just for “all people”, but for every person. It was for me. And Steve. And Josiah. And my neighbor, Berta.

One by one, He healed them all. One by one, He still does.

However, I wonder: when we serve the “one by one” God, why we so often work mostly to become like each other. He constantly demonstrated a passionate desire to maintain a real relationship with individuals…and yet we tend to model our lives after those around us, hoping that our friendship with Him will look just like their friendship with Him.

Someone told me recently that they absolutely would not read a certain translation of the Bible because their small group leader didn’t like it. Another person mentioned a specific philosophy that they had disregarded without evaluation because their mentor was not a fan. I understand following leaders. I get that we all need discipleship…in fact, I’m really passionate about that fact. I don’t, however, want to ever assume that as followers of Jesus we will all look, speak, pray or even believe exactly like one another.

The image of God – stamped on each one of us – allows for some really beautiful and startling diversity if we’ll truly get to know the one-by-one God.

Tonight I landed on my blog through a link on someone else’s. That’s not – in itself – remarkable, but the journey to this post made me really nostalgic.

I saw Luke and Kristin’s beautiful engagement picture and so vividly remembered the day he talked with Steve & I in Steve’s office and asked our thoughts about him asking Kristin out for coffee. If I remember right, our answer was “Go for it!” but our real thoughts were, “Good luck!” cuz we didn’t really think that was gonna go anywhere. Now, they’re going to be married in 2 weeks and I just goes to show: we’re wrong a lot, and that’s why we often say, “Uh, yeah…give it a shot!” : )

I also ran into the blog of Caleb & Ashley Brown. Caleb put in a full year of weekly meetings with me – mostly because he found that girls were mad at him a lot. He talked to me about Ashley – one of my favorite girls EVER – before she even returned from Australia, as he stared lovingly at her picture on my fridge. I think with him, I actually said, “Uh, yeah…well, she’s WAY over your head, but go ahead and ask her!” And sure enough, it was good and God and they are serving Kingdom purpose in Kansas and are going to be a family of renown.

Brent and Virginia Earwicker. Jump with me into the wayback machine and travel to 19something – before Brent even had a drivers license. We met him and loved him immediately and wondered and prayed about the way he would someday change the world. Now – wow – look at him doing just that in Africa, alongside the incredible woman of God that he convinced to marry him. AND – can we all just imagine for a moment the level of cuteness and prophetically-gifted-musicianship their baby is going to possess upon arrival? Wow and wow again!

And I mosied through the blogosphere of one Samuel Spedick. Can I just say that this is my favorite boy in the “under 7” division? He’s just been so “him” from the moment he was born and I have a special and significant affection for him. So, I watched the video of his first steps and so clearly remembered the meetings that Jenni and I had when she and Chris were falling in love and the profound discoveries she was making as God led her through the process. And also – this one great road trip that we took with our friend, Russ Devos, and this heavily-pierced guy to see a Master’s Commission program in Olympia. Steve and I talked extensively about the qualities that we saw in Chris and how we hoped for young men exactly like him in Westside’s internship. Turns out, God totally answered our prayers with exactly a guy like Chris in our first year of CMC! Now, we see his wife and son and realize: his legacy is in full flight.

And I also remembered meeting Eric Parnell for the first time at Applebees…and Tara Jean at Red Robin…and Lindsay when she visited while she was still in high school and I thought, “that’s the cutest girl EVER.”…and Clif while HE was still in high school and was still deciding whether or not Jesus would really be worth it (and man, I admire his choice more than ANYTHING)….and Annalisa, when she tossed away her return ticket home and stayed to do CLC, even though she knew no one and it cost her just about everything.

These are the people that remind me that God is a generational God and what He does is for now and for tomorrow and for years to come. So it makes me wonder: who haven’t we met yet? What stories are yet to unfold? And who will be the children of the children of these people who’s lives I have watched grow and change and become?

I don’t know – but bottom line: I have just about the best job ever.