A Brief Easter Reflection

This is taken from the sermon I preached on Easter Sunday. The passages for that day were Acts 10: 34-43; Psalm 118; Colossains 3:1-4 and John 20:1-18. Here's the message:

In that passage from the book of Acts that was just read. Peter recounts the message of the cross. That message of God sending His Son to earth to live a life of love among us and die for our sins. That is the message of Good Friday. Because of what Christ did, over 2000 years ago on that cross, we can now know forgiveness for our every wrong. It doesn't matter if we've killed a person or simply lied. It was all paid for back on that tree. Yes, that is the message of Christ's death of Good Friday.

So, if that's the message of Good Friday, what about Easter Sunday? What does it mean that Christ rose from the grave 2000 years ago? It means simply this: Not only are we free of the burden of our sin, but even more, we are free and empowered to live life without it. In rising from the dead, Jesus Christ defeated Satan and broke the power of sin. We were imprisoned by all of our wrong doings and in His death and resurrection, Jesus Christ broke the chains and set us free. He has open the door to the cage we built around us with our sin and now stands at the door, beckoning us to come out. The question is will we? Will I? Will you? Will we allow our Savior to take us by His nail-pierced hand and lead us the abundant life He promised us or will we slam the door in His face and cower back in our cages of sin? He longs to free us from that sin and empower us to walk without it. But we are the ones who must make the choice to take His nail-pierced hand and follow Him.

How do we do this? I think Paul gives us an idea in the second passage we read today from his letter to the closings. We must set our minds on Christ and live our lives to honor Him. Not that this will be easy. It won't be. Jesus Christ never took the easy road through life and neither can we. The Christian life was never meant to be a casuals. To live a life without suffering, is not what it means to live the resurrected life. What it means is that when suffering does come our way, God will give us the strength to bear through it and maybe even find His peace in it's midst.

Well, I could go on, but our time here is short and I still have some more things left to do with you. Let me close with a poem I once wrote while struggling with a sin I longed to be free of.

Forgiven
The Father:
I have already forgiven your failings.
Why do you bring them before Me again?

I have already washed you clean.
Why do you insist on playing in the dirt?

Accept My forgiveness.
Receive My cleansing.

Why do you cling to that which I have already released you from?
Why do you remain in the dungeon?
The chains have already been broken and the key thrown away.

The gates of iron have been flung wide open
And yet still you cower in the cage of your own making

The light has been shown forth
Yet you prefer the darkness

What more can I do for you, My child?

How else can I bid you come?
The table has already been set and the dinner bell is ringing
Is it possible you have not heard Me calling?

Answer Me and I will give you the desires of your heart.
I am your Father and have always been faithful.
Is this not the truth?
Listen to your heart, My child.
You know Who I am.
You have always known.

His Child:
Come unto me, O Desire of my heart!
Beckon me unto Your Feast, O Satisfier of my deepest hunger!
Dance with Me, O Romancer of my soul!
Set me beside the still waters, O Author of my peace!
Run with me, O my Ever True Companion
Guide my steps. O Victorious Winner of the race set before me!

You Who began this good work in me,
You are my Faithful Father
And You will finish what You have started!

Yes, You will finish what you have started!

Provision & Forgiveness (MM 3/5/05)

• Mike’s Musings (03/05/05) •

Dear family & friends,

• Life Update

As I look back upon the last month, I find myself unexpectedly thankful. I say that because the amount of expectations and responsibilities entailed in my current job have not changed that much. Though I have brought up their overabundance to my supervisors numerous times. The amount of other things going on in my life feels like it’s actually increased. Many of the issues I was facing last month are still here this month. Yet amidst all this I feel a quiet peace of assurance and strength. Like He has so many times before, God refused to take away the things that cause me stress in my life. Instead He used them to push me to turn to Him and find in my reliance upon Him, the strength I need to get through it all. It is like what Paul said in the twelfth chapter of his second letter to the Corinthian church when he was wrestling with a thorn that God would not take away no matter how often Paul complained. In the midst of Paul’s struggle, Jesus met him and said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2Cor 12: 9). Many were the times this month I found God saying those same words to me, even from the mouths of my supervisors, co-workers and friends, who I needed to hear it from the most.

• Sharing My Journey: Provision & Forgiveness

Paul also talks about how this works with temptation back in his first letter to the Corinthians, in chapter 10. To be honest I have often struggled with this passage because I have found that sometimes God does give us more than we can bear. And He does so on purpose. Yet in the midst of my struggles, I think I have found why He does this. He does it to build our dependence upon Him. In my own life I have found that the burdens of life are certainly way too overbearing for me. Yet when I turn to Him and rely on His strength to get through Him, I find myself often astounded at what we can do together.

Just over the past week, God has brought the theme of forgiveness up in my life again. The particular issues are still a bit personal for me right now, but I can share with you a general principle I am learning. Forgiveness is not a one-time thing. When someone hurts me deeply, it is not like I can forgive him or her and be done with it. No! It’s more like Shrek’s onion personality. Every time I am reminded of this person or incident, I have to forgive them again. Every time it comes up, a new level of hurt arises that I did not realize was there before. Yet like above, each time I find the strength I need from God when I turn to Him, to get through it and even, sometimes, to see His work in it.

For poems this month, I’ll share an old favorite on the theme of forgiveness and a newer one on finding God’s strength amidst the trials of life:

Forgiven

The Father:

I have already forgiven your sin.

Why do you bring it before Me again?

I have already washed you clean.

Why do you insist on playing in the dirt?

Accept My forgiveness.

Receive My cleansing.

Why do you cling to that which I have already released you from?

Why do you remain in the dungeon?

The chains have already been broken and the key thrown away.

The gates of iron have been flung wide open

And yet still you cower in this cage of your own making

The light has been shown forth

Yet you prefer the darkness

What more can I do for you, My child?

How else can I bid you come?

The table has already been set and the dinner bell is ringing

Is it possible you have not heard Me calling?

Answer Me and I will give you the desires of your heart.

I am your Father and have always been faithful.

Is this not the truth?

Listen to your heart, My child.

You know Who I am.

You have always known.

His Child:

Come unto me, O Desire of my heart!

Beckon me unto Your Feast, O Satisfier of my deepest hunger!

Dance with Me, O Romancer of my soul!

Set me beside the still waters, O Author of my peace!

Run with me, O my Ever True Companion

Guide my steps, O Victorious Winner of the race set before me!

You Who began this good work in me,

You are my Faithful Father

And You will finish what You have started!

Yes, You will finish what you have started!

When Sorrow Abounds

When sorrow abounds

Let Your Love surround us

When the cry of our broken hearts rings from the depths

Incline Your ear, O Lord, and listen to our breaths

You are Jesus, Bearer of our grief

You are our Savior, our only relief

You are God, the Father of all comfort

In this our time of need, be not our last resort

You are the Holy Spirit, Who dwells in our heart

From Your life may we never depart

We are Your children, the sheep of Your fold

Come, O God, fall upon us manifold

We need Your saving grace

Enfold us Father in Your embrace

We need Your Truth from Your Word

Come, Spirit, and penetrate us with Your sword

In You we find life

And solace for our strife

In You we find forgiveness

And strength in our weakness

And though Your gift costs us nothing,

We can never be the same.

For everything changes in the presence of Your Name

You are love and life enfleshed

In You our hearts will never be famished

In You is everything we need

In our hearts, come, plant Your seed

Let Your Spirit dwell within us

Be our heart and soul focus

We are Your children, the sheep of Your hand

On You let us with everything depend.

Thanks again for letting me share my life with you in this venue. I pray God will bless you in reading it as He blessed m in writing it. This month I will not get a chance to head down to St. Paul for an extended period because I have been asked to preach for Easter Sunday here at the V.A. However, next month I think I’ll be down there twice: April 1-3 and 15-17. Let me know if any of you are interested in hanging out either of those two weekends and I will see what I can
make work! I hope you are all doing well. God bless each of you!

In His Grip,

Michel Jon Willard

Mike's Musings (2/5/05)

• Mike’s Musings (02/05/05) •

Dear family & friends,

• Life Update

If I had to sum up this month in one word, it would be simply “expectations.” One of the decisions I made upon coming back to work after Christmas was to become more active in my role as a Chaplain Resident at the V.A. Medical Center. In doing so though, I came upon a rather big problem. I found I was a bit unclear on what that role was exactly. In attempting to decipher it, I realized that part of my problem was that I work with and for a number of different supervisors and co-workers, each of whom had their own expectations of what I am supposed to be doing. Never mind that I had my own expectations of what my job was to be like and was constantly in prayer to discern what God’s expectations were. To make matters worse, while many of these expectations were compatible, some of them weren’t. While I know God’s expectations should always over rule the rest, at times I found myself struggling to hear His still, quiet voice above the roar of all the others.

• Sharing My Journey: Finding Security in My Identity with Christ

In working through this predicament, I finally began to hear God’s voice speaking into and through it. My heart began to feel His invitation to stop letting others define who I am called to be and just listen to Him. Not that my identity in Him is totally at odds with all the expectations coming my way, though at times it felt like that, but that being secure in Him would give the strong foundation in and from which to judge everything else that came my way. In Christ, I am known as God’s beloved child who He will care for and protect. This gives me the confidence to move out in faith trusting in Him for wisdom and guidance as I press on to know that which He is calling me towards in Christ Jesus. As I continue to discern His call on my life, I pray, and ask you to pray with and for me, that I will continue to move towards and minister to those He has called me to with the utmost grace and compassion. To care for them as I know He is caring for me. Pray that the themes that have come to characterize my life these years - those of Authenticity, Compassion, and Faithfulness – will continue to mark every aspect of all that I do. Thanks!

For this months poetic selection, I think I may have gone a little overboard. I guess it feels like my words have been a bit jumbled this month, so maybe my art will speak what my mouth cannot. I wrote the first to describe the kind of ministry I felt God was calling me into and still struggle to understand. The middle three describe what my heart is like during this time, for it is the wellspring of my life (Proverbs 4:23). The last is a blessing I wrote last year during Life & Theology of Prayer. It was written for a friend going through struggles, and though it was directed towards the male perspective, I think it could be a somewhat universal blessing.

Hate Sin, Love Sinner
She stares at me through the lenses of her half-priced glasses
All I feel wells up inside me in love,
Yet her lifestyle is of sin
Still He calls me to let her in,
Into my heart, into my world.

Though she has a different companion every night,
Still He calls me to love her with all my might.

(Chorus)
Hate the sin but love the sinner,
That’s what we all should do.
Love the sinner, but hate the sin,
Is what He calls us to do.

He sits in a jailhouse apartment.
A cell which has no windows.
Steel bars his only companions.
He’s on death-row for his past,
Yet a Bible sits by his side.

(Chorus)

They lie in their beds
Both terminally waiting to be dead,
Without a hope for anything,
Yet I stand at their side knowing the Hope for everything.
They had joined in ways not meant to be,
But He calls me to love them as I do me,
And as their minds fill with anguish and sorrow for their sin,
I hear Him again, “Let them in.”

(Chorus)

I could go on for verse after verse,
And still not totally converse,
That which He has placed in my heart,
And which I, in prayer, must start.
We must love the sinner, but hate the sin.
(Chorus)

Remember, my friends, what ever else you may forget.
What ever else you do and may live to regret.
Though sin is from Satan,
The sinner is a child of God
The sinner is a child of God.

(Chorus).

Born Cracked
Born into the world a cracked vessel needing to be filled
The world she offers many things to fill it
Yet I always come back wanting more
Each thing feels right at first
But in time they all turn up lacking

Back in the garden we knew what it was to be filled
Back in the garden we knew what it was to be loved
Back in the garden we knew what it was to be accepted
Dear God why did we ever turn away from You the True Source

Cursed to walk this world abandoned, though we are never alone
You pursue us day and night yet still we run
Unable to turn, unable to be filled
Until by grace You extend the hand
And turn us around in Your Embrace

The cross makes this possible
The blood of Jesus fills our cracked vessel
His Blood seals the crack
In Him we are filled
In Him we are loved
In Him we are accepted

Though I know of His Love for me
Though I have soaked in the blood
Still my vessel leaks
Many are the times I know not filling
Many are the times I know not love
Many are the times I know not acceptance

Why is this the case?
Dear God, extend Your Hand
Dear God, send down Your Grace
Turn me around full in Your Embrace.

You Desire?
The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved —you and your household.”
-Acts 16:29-31

Just believe and you will be saved.
Yet even the demons believe in Christ and they certainly will not be saved
So what is it that You require?
What is it that you desire?
A heart undivided full of fire?
Will that be enough to inspire?

No, my spirit says, You want more
More than a life filled with good works
More than all the money I can earn
More than my first born son
So much more than I can ever give
And yet the answer is simple

You do not want my heart
You do not want my works
You do not want my family
All you really want is me
All of me

My Heart
Lord, I give you my heart
All I am
All I have ever been
And ever hope to be
All I have done and ever plan to do
All I am and ever wanted to be
You are the One I was created for
Why have I searched so long for more
In You all my hopes are met
In You all my desires are satisfied
In You, at last, my heart has found
it's home.


A Blessing for the Man of God
Fall upon this man, O God of our Fathers
May Your Presence surround him
Command Your angels to encamp about him
That the arrows of the enemy may ever fail and fall short

Guard his heart
May Your streams of living water flow ever from her
Keep her undivided in her focus
Ever attentive to You, her Lord and King

Take captive his mind for you, O Holy Spirit
Renew, rewire, and reconfigure it
May it be no longer conformed to this world
Transform it with Your ever Refining Fire
May Your Peace fill his life

Direct the paths of his soul
Recapture it with Your love
Keep it healthy and ever devoted to You
You, O Jesus, Lover of his soul

Take Your Blood, O Jesus, and cleanse his eyes
May your living water flow over them, washing away all remnants of sin
Keep them pure, O Jesus, for they are the portals of all within

Keep his ears attuned to You, O Holy Spirit
Help him discern Your Voice among all those waging for his attention

May Your Words be ever upon his lips, O Lord
May his mouth hang open expectantly
Longing for Your Command

Break free his hands and feet for their shackles
May they be swift and beautiful for Thee

By the way, they’re all from my collection this month ;-) Thank you again, each of you, so much for letting me share my life and ministry in this way. I pray you are blessed and drawn closer to our Loving Father through its reading. Certainly, I know I was in its writing. This month, I’ll be leading the Protestant service at the V.A. on February 13th. The service starts at 9:30 am and all are welcome to come. That also means I’ll get the following Friday off (the 18th and I would love to spend that weekend with some of you down in St. Paul or wherever. Just let me know what works best for you and I’ll see what I can do. I hope you are all doing well. May God’s presence tangibly touch each of your lives during this month.

Of Christ's Humility & Ours

This was taken from my devotions this morning and is based of Philippians 2:4-11,

One of the places I worked at before coming here to the V.A. was a home for the mentally handicapped in St. Paul called Our House. During my time there I wrote the following journal entry:
In my ministry to the handicapped through my work at Our House, I am doing an incarnational work. You see, when Christ came down to be with us He retained all of His divine qualities, but He also knew that if He tapped into His full potential even once, His whole mission on earth would be canceled. He could have called down legions of angels in the Garden of Gethsemane , yet He knew He needed to go to the Cross (Matt. 26:53-54). There were many times throughout His time on earth when using His divine powers seemingly would have been to His advantage. Yet He resisted this temptation because He had a higher purpose in mind: The fulfillment of His mission, that of saving His People and fulfilling the scriptures. In the same way, I too have a mission in my work with the handicapped that restricts some of my capabilities. For example, part of my work there is to help the residents go through certain programs designed to help them become more independent. Now, it is fully within my power to do these tasks for them or even physically lead them through each time, and believe me there have been many times I have been tempted to do this. However, I know that if I do, my whole purpose of promoting that resident’s independence would be thwarted. If anything, I would be increasing their dependence on me as a care attendant, and while that may feed my ego and make me feel all good inside, it does little to forward the action on their independence.
This same concept also works here. As a chaplain, I am explicitly doing incarnational work. Yet I’m not the only one. The doctors and nurses here are doing it as well. So are the Food Service people, the cleaning people, and all the rest of the employees. We can all choose to be Christ to each other. Let us do so graciously.

Baptism: Christ's & Ours

This Sunday is the Baptism of the Lord in liturgical calendars, so the the passages assigned were Isaiah 42:1-9, Psalm 29, Acts 10:34-43, and Matthew 3:13-17. Here's the sermon I just finished preaching,

In the Baptism of Jesus Christ our Lord, I see three things going on. As John the Baptist takes his cousin in his arms, lowers Jesus into the waters of the River Jordan and raises Him up out of the waters, God, the Father, sends down His Holy Spirit in the form of a dove and calls Jesus His beloved Son. In so doing, God the Father is recognizing Jesus as His beloved Son, anointing Him with His Holy Spirit and sending Him into the world to preach His good news.

A similar thing happens when we are baptized. As God, the Father, recognized Jesus as His Son, so He recognizes and adopts us as His Children. God loves each of us as His own sons and daughters. We were each made in His image and He longs for us to come and know Him. To come and know just how much we are loved!

God, the Father, also anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit. Likewise, He anoints each of us with that same Holy Spirit. In this anointing we are both sealed in salvation and empowered to walk in His love. For as God loves us just as we are, He calls and enables us to be all He longs for us to be in and through Him.

Finally, God, the Father, sent Jesus out to preach His good news. So He also sends us. In preaching God's good news, we are called not just to say it in word, but to let our actions speak it as well. So, when we hear of the terrible suffering brought forth by the tsunami and earthquake in South Eastern Asia, let us be moved in compassion to show forth God's love and grace towards those victims. Let us, like Christ, be poured out to those less fortunate than ourselves.

So, just as Christ was baptized and sent into a world that desperately needed His light, love and compassion, so we are as well. Through our baptism in Him, our old lives have been crucified with Him on the cross and with Him we have been raised to new life. Through this baptism, we have also been adopted in to His family and service. We are His representatives on earth. When we see all the devastation around us, let us have the same heart as our heavenly Father, Who when He looked down and saw our plight, sent His only Son that all might have life in His name. As His children, you are recipients of His love, may you share that with all those around you who need it so much.

Jesus & Healing, version 2

As I mentioned previously, this is a changed and shortened version of the prior devotional meditation. I ended up basing this one off Matthew 8:1-4,

When Jesus healed this man, he not only healed his body, he healed his spirit as well and so enabled him to regain his status in the community. In those days, leapers were outcasts from society. They lived in separate communities with other leapers and whenever they came into town, they had to constantly yell, "Unclean" and ring a bell so all would know to stay clear of them.

When Jesus healed him, He could have just said the word, but He chose to reach out His hand and touch him. This man probably had not been touched for a long time. So even just the touch was healing. Still, Jesus wasn't finished. Once the physical healing was accomplished, Jesus asked him to go and show himself at the temple. In doing this, Jesus was also making it possible for the man to come back into society.

As you work with the veterans today, may you enable healing on all levels possible. As you veterans receive their services, may you be aware of all the healing happening in and though you as you stay here. It may just be happening in more ways than you realize!

Jesus & Healing, version 1

I originally intended to share this for Devotions at the V.A. this morning, but it got too long. So I changed and shortened it once I got there. This was the original version. It was based off Mark 5:24-33,

What does this passage about Jesus healing a woman with bleeding have to say to us here at the Saint Cloud V.A. today? Just this, Jesus healed not only her body, He healed her spirit as well. He restored her to the community. How is this? Do you have any idea what it would be like to be bleeding for twelve years straight? And not just any bleeding, most commentators tell us that this was an extended period of menstrual bleeding. In that day and age, that kind of deep wound was an emotional and societal one as well. She was ceremonially unclean. No one wanted to go near her. Her own family had probably disowned her long ago. And this day she here’s that a healer is in town. Not just any healer, for she had gone to many of those over the years and found no hope. Yet this man had healed many others, surely he could heal her as well. So off she went. Then she encountered the crowd. She was too ashamed to even approach Jesus up front, but instead crept up behind Him and touched just the edge of his cloak. How scared and astonished she must have been as He turned looking around and asking who touched him. Scared to say that she had made Him unclean and astonished to feel cleanliness coming back into her own body. She was healed! Then, if that wasn’t enough, when she threw herself at the feet of Jesus, I can just picture Him reaching down and bringing her up by the hand and then saying, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” He had called her “daughter” and had restored her ceremonial cleanliness. As Daniel Fountain said in his book God, Medicine & Miracles,

“Even after her internal organs had been healed, this woman was still ill psychologically, socially, and spiritually, because all her relationships remained broken. What Jesus said to this woman spoke to the depths of her heart and healed those broken relationships. With her ears she heard Jesus say, “My daughter.” In her spirit she heard him say, “I love you. I accept you. You are worthy to live in my family you are now healed and made whole.” This word restored her relationship to herself. She knew that somehow, in the eyes of this marvelous man named Jesus, she was worthy. Her dignity was restored and immediately the fear, rejection, and despair that had destroyed her life were removed.”

This is the kind of healing we each can offer as well. Not just physical well-being, but that of the mind, heart and spirit as well. Let us go share that kind of healing with all who are ready to receive it.

Mike's Musings (1/2/05)

Dear family & friends,

• Life Update

A belated Merry Christmas and timely Happy New Year to all you wonderful people you! I just got back a few days ago from spending Christmas with my folks in down in Florida. The weather there was warmer than here, though not by much ;-( The highlight of the trip was going to see Phantom of the Opera (the movie) with my folks and my aunt. Great movie! I highly recommended it. And this is coming from a guy who has seen the musical live a few times. They did a really good job of working the transition. I also spent a large part of the break discussing a book my Dad and I were reading together, Brian McLauren’s A New Kind of Christian. I think we would commend it highly to any Christian who wants to grow in knowing God and is ready to let Him out of some of the boxes you may have tried to stuff Him in. Though I wouldn’t suggest it for those who are comfortable with their faith as it is now. Brain addresses a number of differences between modern Christians and post-modern ones and some of them have the potential to make people squirm a bit.

• Sharing My Journey: The Discomfort of Growing in God

For a while now it feels like I have been going through a difficult transition in my relationship with God. During my first year at Bethel Seminary, I read The Critical Journey by Janet Hagburg and Robert A. Guelich. In it, the authors shared a 6-stage spiritual growth pattern that they have found in the lives of many Christians. The path begins with growing in Awe of God, then being Discipled by your church, and Producing more disciples like yourselves. According to my professor at the time, most Christians, including seminary graduates and pastors, stopped after those three. Why, you might ask? Because the fourth stage involves coming to a point in our faith walk where everything we have learned thus far, no longer works. And most people I know, including myself, at times, really don’t want to admit this is truly the case. That fourth stage is called the Inward Journey because it requires a re-focusing and a realization that there is nothing we can do on our own to grow beyond this point. The crisis that brings this on is referred to as The Wall and the only way through that wall is to realize our utter need for God and to totally depend on Him. As our dependence and trust grows, as He pours more and more of His Love into us, we will begin to be able to reach Outwardly in that love walking with Him and others in His Life of Love with us.

During this part of my life I feel like I have been the Inward and Outward Journeys for a long time. To make matters harder, I find most of the people around me still being Discipled or Producing and seemingly content to stay there. I fear sharing my struggles with them, not just because they may not understand them, but because I may be judged as a result or they may hear me as judging them. Yet I still feel God’s invitation to share with them. To share with you. I still feel His invitation to continue to grow in my dependence upon and trust in Him, no matter how painful it gets at times. In my case, the Wall has not been a single event, but a series of them, each bringing their own share of new lessons to learn and wrestle through. At times I feel like Neo wanting to throw open that car door and run back to the life I knew before, yet I still hear the Holy Spirit’s voice echoing Trinity’s, saying, “You’ve been down that road before, Mike, and I know that’s not where you want to be.”

The feelings and invitations would best be summed up in these two poems and song lyrics.

Be Still

“Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
-Psalm 46:10

Be still, My child and know that you are loved.
Endless, limitless, eternal love is yours.
My Son paid the price and you are free to come.

Come and know Me
Come and know that you are loved.
Come with no expectations, for they will all be blown away.
Come with no preparations, the price has already been paid
Come with no restrictions for they are only self-imposed
Come desiring nothing, knowing you will receive all that is of true worth.

I am the One Who has love you since before time began
As you were formed within your mother’s womb
I knew you and called you My chosen one
You are My child and I love you.


Let Go

The Father:
I invite you, My child, to let go.
Let go of your need to worry for it really does you no good.
Let go of your need to control for you really have none.
Let go of your need for a plan for I am all you really ever need!

I invite you, My child, to let Me in.
Let Me into your concerns for I can bear your load.
Let Me into your life for I do know what I am doing.
Let Me into your heart for I am the One you were created for.

I invite you, My child, to know the truth.
Know that I care for you and I will see to your needs.
Know that I am taking care of them even now.
Know that I am Your Faithful Father.

His Child:
Lord, help me to trust when I don’t want to trust
Lord, help me to love when I don’t want to love
Lord, help to give, when I don’t want to give
To give my life to You.

For You, O Lord, are the Lover of my soul
And You, O Lord, are faithful
Yes, You O Lord, will watch over me
And care for me better than I ever could.

Come to Jesus

Oh, my baby, when you're older
Maybe then you'll understand
You have angels that stands around you shoulders
'Cause at times in life you need a loving hand

Oh, my baby, when you're prayin'
Leave your burden by my door
You have Jesus standing by your bedside
To keep you calm, keep you safe,
Away from harm

Worry not my daughters,
Worry not my sons
Child, when life don't seem worth livin'
Come to Jesus and let Him hold you in His arms

Oh, my baby, when you're cryin'
Never hide your face from me
I've conquered hell and driven out the demons
I have come with a life to set you free

Worry not my daughters,
Worry not my sons
Child, when life don't seem worth livin'
Come to Jesus and let Him hold you in His arms

Oh, oh
Oh, oh
Yeah, yeah, yeah

Oh, my baby, when you're dying
Believe the healing of His hand
Here in Heaven we will wait for your arrival
Here in Heaven you will finally understand
Here in Heaven we will wait for your arrival
Here in Heaven you will finally understand

Worry not my daughters,
Worry not my sons
Child, when life don't seem worth livin'
Come to Jesus and let Him hold you in His arms

By the way, the first two were my own and the third was from Mindy Smith’s album, One Moment More. Thanks again, so much for letting me share my life and ministry with you in this way. I pray you are blessed and drawn closer to our Loving Father through its reading. Certainly, I know I was in its writing. This month, I’ll be leading the Protestant service at the V.A. on January 9th. The service starts at 9:30 am and all are welcome to come. That also means I’ll get the following Friday off (the 14th and I would love to spend that weekend with some of you down in St. Paul or wherever. Just let me know what works best for you and I’ll see what I can do. I hope you are all doing well and enjoying this holiday season. May God’s presence tangibly touch each of your lives during this New Year.

In His Grip,
Michel Jon Willard

More Devotions with Mike :-)

This one was based of Christ's Birth as recorded in Luke 2:1-20,

Does it strike anyone else as odd that the King of Kings and Lord of Lords would choose these circumstances to come into the world? Not only does He not even get a decent bed on which to spend His first night of human life. The first people God decides to share this joyous occasion with are shepherds. They were the most disreputable crew of people around during that day, kind of like the homeless in today’s society. You’d think the Master of the Universe would have gone to further lengths when bringing His own Son into the world. These days we might expect God’s Son to be born to wealthy parents, have an elegant bed and house in which to grow up and have become an instant celebrity through out ever-present world of mass media exposure.

Yet, if you think back to your Old Testament stories, I think you’ll see a pattern. God didn’t chose the largest and most powerful nation to be His People. When Israel began, it was just one man, Abraham, on a journey because of a promise, yet look what it became! David, Israel’s finest and most memorable king, started out as a shepherd boy. Moses was a murderer on the run. The list goes on. Is it my imagination or does it seem that God enjoys showing off? He loves taking the side of the underdog and showing the word just how much is possible through faith in Him. He goes bonkers when people are forced to look at a miraculous situation and say, “No way is this an ordinary occurance, Surely we have seen the hand of God this day.”

But maybe you’re thinking, if that’s the case, why don’t miracles happen every day? Wouldn’t such a God want to show off more often? I think miracles do happen everyday, we’ve just forgotten how to look for them. We expect humoungous showings and amazing healings. Yet look back at the birth story. The most amazing miracle of God’s coming to earth appeared as totally ordinary. It could have very easily gone unheard of. Maybe God does show off in little ways everyday. Yes, His grace is evident in the innocent smile of a child, especially in their birth. It’s there n the look of affection between two young lovers. It’s there in the promise of Spring and her sister Summer amidst the cold of Winter. In the tender touch of a caring nurse, In the precise cuts of a well-trained surgen. Even in the coming of death after a long suffering battle with cancer, He is there. And from within He draws all to Himself and yearns for them to know Him.

We too can play a part in God’s grace, for we are His hands and feet. We are called to minister to all as if we were ministering to Him. So let us walk in His Grace today and share it with all we meet.

Emmanuel

Son of God, Immanuel

Son of God, Immanuel
Tonight You came with us to dwell

You came to show us how to live
You came to us eternal life to give

Child of the King, You came from above
To teach us the true meaning of love

Took on our flesh, took on our sin
Our earthly burden, You took within

By Your hands, our wounds were healed
With Your blood our hearts are sealed

Teach us this day
To walk in Your way

Almighty Father, watch over us
Protect us from our darkness

Holy Spirit, Who dwells within
Keep us this day from all sin

Jesus, Redeemer, Lover, and Friend
To us Your embrace now extend

As we gather with our family
As we gather with our friends

Your love guides our hearts, as we amble blindly
While we hold hands, Your grace descends

And for those of us, who spend this season alone
As our spirits within us groan

Remind us, I pray, that You are always there.
Remind us, O Lord, that You always care.

The road we walk is treacherous
But You O Lord are ever with us

Give us this day our daily bread
Watch over us as we go to bed.

A-men.

Mike's Musings (12-04-04)

Mike’s Musings (12/04/04)

Dear family & friends,

Life Update

Some of you out there still probably find yourselves wondering what I do in a typical day at the V.A. Well, it would probably be easier to describe my workload. Currently, at the V.A., I’ve been assigned to two floors, both of which have about 20 veterans per floor most ranging from 70 - 90+ years of age. My first major interaction with most of these happens through doing Spiritual Assessments (SA), a 13 in depth questionnaire which covers everything from their religious / denominational preference to their level of daily peace and what might be hindering that in their case. When a veteran is newly admitted on one of my floors, I am obligated to complete one these with them within two weeks of their arrival. In addition, I have weekly staff meetings for each of these floors where we do quarterly and yearly reviews of each veteran. I have found it a good idea to have the SA’s for those veterans being staffed in hand while attending these meetings. If an issue is raised during the SA, I then talk with the veteran to see how often s/he would like to meet to dialogue about it. There are also a few hospice veterans on those floors who get weekly visits. Every once in a while, there are also veterans who are diagnosed as Seriously Ill (SI) or close to death. These veterans get daily visits from yours truly.

In addition, I get to do some work with those veterans going through our Center for Chemical Dependency. I usually meet twice with these guys/gals. First, we take them through a computerized and much more thorough version of the SA (CAP) and talk with them about the results afterwards. Second, we meet with them to complete a Fifth Step. For those of you unfamiliar with AA terminology, this is where the veteran goes through and confesses all the wrongs that s/he has ever committed or had committed against him/her in the presence of God and one other person. I, basically, think of it as the Protestant version of Confession. In an average week, I complete about 5 SA’s, 4 CAP’s, 1-2 5th Steps, go to two staff meetings, meet a number of veterans on an ongoing basis and do the occasional SI. Since we are a hospital, and a V.A. one at that, every one of these encounters has to be documented. I also meet weekly with my fellow chaplains to talk through some of these veteran interactions and encourage each other on in our work together. So, I do find myself a bit busy these days ;-)

Sharing My Journey: Of Balance & the Never-ending Tyranny of Time

You got a glimpse of this in my last newsletter. Now, I guess, it’s time for the full deal. Just looking at the above “job description” makes me feel somewhat overwhelmed at times. Throughout the past days and weeks, I have come up against the need to balance taking time to care for others and myself again and again. There just never seem to be enough hours in the day to get through all I want to do and get everything I need to do done as well. My daily time with God in the mornings has become very precious to me throughout all this. Especially as I’ve taken to going through the Lord’s Prayer every morning and using it as a guide to pray through the day and all those I care about. I have found it amazing how much better a visit goes if I pray through it first and ask God’s peace to guard my heart and His grace to guide my steps. In addition, I have also found the experience to be a crucible for testing out how I’m meeting my needs and those of the people I minister with and to.

For poems this month, I’ve got two. I’ll also post my traditional Christmas poem on my blog website. The first is about being my own shepherd and the second is of caring for others. Coupled together, they tell of the balance I am working to achieve in my own life.

Lies & Truth
I'm feeling kinda venerable tonight
My mixed up emotions are bubbling through
What I know as truth seems so boring
And deception seems so exciting
Though I know the difference between them

Chorus:
Lord, will You be my strength?
When I don’t want to be strong?
Will You carry me along
When it all seems so far gone
Lord, will you help me fight
When it feels like the battle’s already been lost

To lie is sin and sin is death
In truth is life or so I’ve been told
Yet the lie looks so attractive
And the truth just seems so covered with dust
For a lie can look like the truth
Just as a wolf can don sheep’s clothing
But in truth it’s still a lie
Despite it’s appearance otherwise.
Yes, this must be a wolf in sheep’s clothing
And my resistance is low

Chorus

I know my emotions can fool me
But, man, what I feel seems so real
You say tomorrow will be different
Yet today still has so much left to live
The devil he is so clever
And I am so naïve

Chorus

And it all comes down to choice
Will I choose to live or die
Will I choose to believe the lie
Or embrace the truth that is Christ
To stand strong in His might
And know He is on my side
This, at least, I know is true
God is real and He cares for me.

Forgotten Tears
He sits at the end of the bar
washing away years of misery and sorrow with each vodka shot he downs

She sits in an abandoned house
waiting for a husband who will never come home.

He can have any girl he wants
but none can touch his fenced in heart.

She walks along the dusty road
heading for a home that no longer wants her company.

He sits by the roadside without a cent to his name,
his “friends” took everything they could claim.

She sits alone everyday,
none even think of joining her.

He sits in the back of church every Sunday
praying to a god he long ago decided was dead.

Everyone knows one.
Their faces crowd our streets and hallways.
Souls that life threw to the wayside.

Try to help them though we might,
we have no solution to offer.
Only eyes to cry their forgotten tears

Thank you again, so much, for letting me share my life and ministry with you in this way. I pray you are blessed and drawn closer to our Loving Father through its reading. Certainly, I know I was in its writing. This month, I’ll be leading the Protestant service at the V.A. on December 14th. The service starts at 9:30 am and all are welcome to come. That also means I’ll get the following Friday off and I would love to spend that weekend with some of you down in St. Paul or wherever. Just let me know what works best for you and I’ll see what I can do. I hope you are all doing well and enjoying this holiday season. May God’s presence tangibly touch each of your lives during this Advent and Christmas season.

In His Grip,
Michel Jon Willard

A Prayer of Invocation

Part of this prayer was actually published in the church newsletter of Soloman's Porch, so I thought I would also display it here for you as well. Here goes:

O come, o come, beloved Lover of our souls.
You Who knows us deeper and more intimately than even we know ourselves
You Who see us as we truly are, not as we want to be, not as we should be, but as we are today, this moment
You see us and You declare, each of us individually and collectively,
Your treasured and precious ones.
Fill us, O Father with Your peace which surpasses all understanding.
Amen

My Thanksgivings

Yet another excerpt from my weekly devotions. The scripture text for this time was 1Corinthians 10:16,
Being that tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day, I thought I might start by sharing some of the things I am thankful for this year. I am thankful for God Who continues to draw me closer to Himself each day. I am thankful for the Holy Spirit Who renews me daily from within. I am thankful for Jesus Christ, by Whose blood I have been saved and in Whose footsteps and am learning to walk more and more in each day. I am thankful for my family who support me so much with their love, prayer and finances. I am thankful for my friends, who continue to be living representations of God’s love and grace towards me. I am thankful for my church, in whose fellowship I can continue to grow in my relationship with God and His people. I am thankful for the V.A. who have given me a place where I can both earn a living and carry out my ministry of love and care to those who need it here. I am thankful for my fellow chaplains here, both those who supervise me, as well as those who minister along side me, for continuing to work with me and help me to improve in my serving of others. I am thankful for all of the staff here who I also work with, that you value my presence and acknowledge my service to these veterans. I am thankful for you veterans out there, that you humbly and graciously accept my service to you even when it may fall short of your expectations. The list could go on forever. Indeed it could for each of us, could it not? We each have many things and people in our lives to give thanks for. We each have many blessings from God for which to give Him praise, do we not? Let us remember that tomorrow as we gather around the table with our friends and family.
Let us also remember the greatest gift God has ever given us, that is His Son, Jesus Christ. His blood was shed for the forgiveness of our many sins and His body broken that ours might be whole again. So, when we break bread and share drink tomorrow, let us remember the One Whose body was broken and His blood shed for us. Let us invite Him to be there with us at the table as we do each time we celebrate His Communion, for as Paul wrote in the passage I read this morning, “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?”

Speaking to Our Hearts

This is another excerpt from my devotions this morning. The passage quoted is from the Gospel of John 21:1-19,

Imagine what it would have been like to be Peter at this moment. Just last week you were eating dinner Jesus, when He turned to you and said, “Peter, the Devil wishes to sift you like wheat, but I have been praying that you will weather the test.” This would certainly raise my awareness. This is the man you have come to see as the very Son of God, the Messiah you’ve been waiting for years to come. The One Who had said you would receive the keys to the kingdom and that upon you He would build His church. And now He’s say the devils wants to “sift you like wheat!” Whatever could he mean? Then Jesus tells you that you will betray Him not once, not twice, but three times during the coming night. Such is unfathomable and of course you deny it adamantly. Yet just a few hours later you find yourself doing the very thing you just swore you would never do. And you do it just as Jesus said you would. Of course you find this a cause for weeping. The devil has come and you have been sifted out. You betrayed the very One who entrusted you to lead His future church. You have failed as a leader among your fellow disciples. Your world is falling apart.
You can’t even bear to watch your Lord’s execution. You feel at a total loss for what to do next. Then you hear from a fellow disciple that Jesus’ body is missing and you run to the tomb only to find the burial cloths folded neatly in the corner. Your world continues to stumble out of control. You decide to back to the one thing you know best. Fishing. Yet you find yourself, even in that, a failure. You and a few fellow disciples spend the night fishing and catch not even one fish.
Then a stranger calls out from the shore and has the nerve to ask you if you’ve caught any fish. Exhausted and tired you and your friends yell back, “No!”
The stranger has the gall to then ask you to try throw your net on the other side. Can he not imagine you haven’t already tried there? Yet you decide to give it a try anyway. Suddenly, the net fills with fish and you find yourself reminded of a previous encounter like this. You begin to realize this is no stranger who called out to you. One of the other disciples speaks aloud the truth your heart has already recognized. “It is the Lord.” You run to meet Him. He then asks you and the other disciples with you to have breakfast with Him.
After the meal, Jesus takes you aside. You want to beg His forgiveness. You want to try and explain your actions. You want to . . . But He beats you to the punch and with loving words speaks right into your heart. Three times He asks if you love Him. Three times you answer that, of course, you do. Three times He asks you to feed His sheep. Maybe it was at the moment, maybe it wasn’t until afterwards. At some point you realize Jesus just reinstated you as His chosen leader for His church.

In this moment Jesus showed immense compassion and insight into the life of Peter. Jesus knew that Peter’s betrayal of him would crush him. He knew it would utterly break his heart and if not treated rightly would ship wreck Christianity before it even got started. This, I think, was what Jesus meant by saying that the devil wished to sift Peter as wheat. I don’t think this is a reference to Peter’s future betrayal, but that Jesus knew Peter’s leadership potential and the very future of His church was on the line. That’s why Jesus spoke to Peter as He did in this passage. He told him the exact words he needed to hear in order to get at the root of the problem. What Peter heard and experienced in the exchange spoke right to his broken heart and floundering leadership ability. Jesus knew exactly what to say to Peter.
Maybe you have problems too many to count, issues too weighty to surmount, a life you are finding very difficult to weather your way through. Maybe you feel a bit like Peter did here. Jesus knows your needs. He is attending to them even now. If you slowed down enough to listen, you might even hear Him whispering the very words you need to hear.

Thoughts on the Final Judgement (Remixed)

The following is taken from a devotion that I lead based on the same text as the next posting (Matthew 25:31-46). The main differnce is the story used.

What comes into your mind when you hear these passages? Do you see visions of God sitting on His royal throne separating the Righteous from the unrighteous? Maybe you get feelings of dread? Or are suddenly wondering if you’d be ready if God came back today? Today I wish to share with you a different vision of Judgment Day.
I spent my junior year of college abroad in Israel and while there; I studied a number of Jewish parables. One of the ones that stuck me the most was a picture of heaven. It struck me first off, because there really is not that much Jewish speculation about heaven, and secondly because of it’s content. Let me share it with you and, I think, you’ll gather why it caught my attention.
“I once dreamed I was given a tour of both heaven and hell. In both cases, I entered into a very elaborately adorned dinning room with the food immaculately set up. Then the dinner guests were filed in and sat down at their seats. It was at this point that I realized something was very different between these people and myself. The arms of every one of the dinner guests seemed to be permanently locked at the elbows. Then the eating commenced. It was at this point that I saw a distinct difference between the residents of heaven and the residents of hell. One room stayed immaculately clean the whole meal through, while the other became a total mess. When I took a closer look to discern the reason for the difference, I saw that the inhabitants of the clean room were serving each other, while those in the messy room were continually trying to feed themselves even though they never actually succeeded in getting a single morsel in their mouths. I didn’t even need to ask which was which, for that much was quite obvious.”
Is that the type of picture that you have a heaven, or even or judgment day? What do you think made the difference between the two rooms? The food in both cases was the same. The set up was the same; even the guests themselves looked the same on the outside. Yet once the eating commenced, that was when the true essence of the guests came out. For while the inhabitants of one realized right away that it was only in serving each other that they themselves would ever get fed, the others kept trying to feed themselves.
I think it is the same with the gospel passage I read this morning. Both the sheep and the goats were confronted with people who needed help and while the sheep helped all they saw in need, the goats did not. Why? The difference that, I think, Jesus wanted to emphasize was not how many more people the sheep served than the goats, but the heart behind their serving. The emphasis in the Jewish parable I read was not on the outward behavior of the different people, but on their inner motivations. Do you see the difference?
To me, the distinction is crucial. I have firmly come to believe over the years I have known God, that lasting transformation and change comes not in adapting a certain set of behaviors and learning to live my life right, but receiving Christ into your life and allowing Him to change you from the inside out through the power of His Holy Spirit at work within your heart. Once the heart is changed, outer change will follow suit.
The question I wish for you to leave with today is not what am I doing wrong and how can I become better, but who am I becoming? Am I becoming more and more like Christ every day inside and out? Am I taking the time daily to hear His voice and learn who He is inviting me to become? Am I trying to live my life on my own according to His principles or am I learning to hear His voice and follow Him into the life He is calling me to?

Thoughts on the Final judgment

The following is an excerpt from a brief sermon I preached this past Sunday on the Final Judgement in Matthew 25:31-46,

What comes into your mind when you hear these passages? Do you see visions of God sitting on His royal throne separating the Righteous from the unrighteous? Maybe you get feelings of dread? Or are suddenly wondering if you’d be ready if God came back today? Today I wish to share with you a different vision of Judgment Day.

I spent much of the last year working in and with a relatively young church. During one of their outreach attempts to the youth of the area, they showed a short film left quite an impression on me.

The film started with the father of a typical American family leaving for work. His daughter gives him some licorice for a snack and he promptly puts it in his pocket. He also happens to be wearing a rather warm-looking coat. He drives along and is suddenly being hit by another car.
The next scene shows the same father now heading for a train station. He is now headed for either heaven or hell, I presumed. A conductor gave him a ticket and he headed for the train. Once he boarded, he found that there was homeless woman also aboard the train. Not really desiring to talk with her he takes a seat at a bit of a distance from her. The train started to move.

A little while later the woman appeared to be shivering and said, “Oh, dear. I’m quite cold. Could I borrow your jacket?”
“Sorry, ma'me.” the father replied. “It’s the only one I have and I’m not sure what’s ahead.”
“Of course.” She responded. “ I fully understand.”
Another short time passed and the woman turned to the man and seemed to notice the licorice sticking out of his front pocket. She said, “I sure am hungry. Do you think you could spare one of those licorice you have in your pocket there?”
“Sorry, ma’me.” replied the father, “My daughter gave them to me and they’re all I have to remember her by.”
“Of course.” She responded. “I fully understand.”
Shortly there after the train came to a stop and the father got off. He looked around to see what had happened to the woman, only to find she had vanished.
“Oh well,” he thought. “I’m sure she’ll get whatever’s coming to her.”
He headed off down the road before him, not thinking about it any longer. Then he noticed a staircase before him with a small sign. It read, “This way to Judgment.” And pointed up the stairs. So, up he went.
Then he came to the top of the stairs and found himself in a greenhouse all filled with plant life of many different kinds. Wondering around, he finally came upon the gardener and asked, “Could you point me in the direction of the Judgment?”
“I am the Judge.” She replied. And suddenly the father found himself face to face with the very woman he had just disregarded not once, not twice, but three times.

What was your reaction to that story? Maybe you’re sitting there wondering, “What would I do in that situation?” or “Was how the father acted so wrong?” or “There wasn’t even a warning!” Personally, I see a lot of similarities between the story I just told and the gospel passage I read this morning. In both cases none of those being judged were really aware of what was going on. They never realized that their present actions could have eternal consequences. Yet they did. Most of us never realize the ways we act in our present lives will affect our eternal destiny and yet they will. Why is this the case? Why would God base His eternal judgment on something so arbitrary? It just seems so random. Or maybe not.

Have you ever noticed that people act a lot differently publicly than they do privately? How they may be one person when they’re on display, and another when they’re just living day to day? Why is that? I think it’s because when we know we’re being watched we act exactly as we know we’re supposed to act and when we think we’re alone or just blending into the crowd, we let ourselves loose. We feel free to just be ourselves when no one’s looking. I think God knows this. He knows we wear masks in public and take them off in private. He knows everyone of us has a split personality. Some of us have been wearing that mask so long we no longer know who we really are. He knows that too.

He knows that it’s when our guard is down, when we think no one’s watching that our true essence comes out. He knows we’re ashamed of that side of us, yet that’s the very part of us He came to save. That’s the part of us He is inviting to come follow Him and become like His Son, Jesus Christ. He’s not so much concerned with how much we do for Him publicly as He is about who we are becoming privately. That’s what really matters when it comes to our eternal destiny. Do you see the difference yet?

To me, the distinction is crucial. I have firmly come to believe over the years I have known God, that lasting transformation and change comes not in adapting a certain set of behaviors and learning to live your life right, but receiving Christ into your life and allowing Him to change you from the inside out through the power of His Holy Spirit at work within your heart. Once the heart is changed, outer change will follow suit.

The question I wish for you to leave with today is not what am I doing wrong and how can I become better, but who am I becoming? Am I becoming more and more like Christ every day inside and out? Am I taking the time daily to hear His voice and learn who He is inviting me to become? Am I trying to live my life on my own according to His principles or am I learning to hear His voice and follow Him into the life He is calling me to?

Made from the Dust of the Earth

This is another excerpt from my weekly devotions:
In my previous reflection I talked a lot about how we are made in God’s image. Now, some may ask, “If we were each made in God’s image, then how did we become so messed up?” A sensible question, certainly. If God is perfect, would not those made in His Image also be perfect? Let me answer that by pointing back top the first passage I read today (Genesis 2:7). Notice it is from the second chapter of Genesis. The first passage I quoted last week was from the first chapter. This chapter adds something that the first chapter left out. It says we were made from the “dust of the earth.” God made each of us in His Image out of the lowest material on earth: dust. Does this strike anyone else as a bit odd? We were made to be the highest of all creation, yet we were made from the most filthy stuff imaginable. How does that work? I think we get an idea from the second passage I read (2Cor. 12:7). According to Paul, God’s power is made most manifest in our weakness. He shines the most when we are at our least.
And if you look all through scripture, you can see a similar theme: From God choosing Israel, the smallest of all nations, to be His Promised People, to God choosing David, a little shepherd boy, to topple Goliath and become Israel’s king. Even Jesus death on the cross was evidence of this. To die on the cross was the most shameful of all deaths, yet through His death, Christ won for us the victory over sin. It appears God likes rooting for the little guy. He enjoys cheering on the underdog. I don’t know about you, but I find that pretty encouraging when I think about the mess my life has been at times. The truth of the matter is when we are at our utter lowest is the time we finally realize how really messed up we are and how much we need God. We grow to depend on Him more and more and that’s what the Christian life is all about.
So, hear this and be heartened on. God loves cleaning up and working with you through your mess-ups. It doesn’t matter to Him that this is the first or the tenth time you’ve been through rehab. It doesn’t matter to Him whether you’re on your deathbed or adjusting to life with part of you now missing. Whatever your ailment, whatever your disease, come to God and know you are loved and accepted. Truly there is nothing that can separate you from the love of God. Absolutely nothing!! God loves you and longs for you to know and love Him. Won’t you come this day? Really, what is stopping you?

Communion: What's it mean?

Part of my function as a chaplain is to perform commuion when a patient would like it as well as part of those Sunday Worship services I lead. At first I would not have thought this would lead to any trouble. My friends and I have shared communion with each other a number of times without thinking more about it than we thought necessary. Yet an issue did arise when my giving out communion was thought of. It turns out that all of the present chaplains of the VA are of more liturgical and high church denominations (a catholic priest and two Lutherans ministers) yet here I was fresh out of a Baptist seminary with only an M.Div. to my name. The question was how to consecrate the elements when I was officiating and how to dispose of them once I was done. At the core of this is the Catholic and Lutheran belief that when the priest says the prayer, the bread and wine somehow actually become the body and blod of Christ. This is called transubstatiation or consubstatiation depending on the tradition. Hence the consectation is when this takes place and the authority of the one doing the consecrating is a crucial question. In most protestant denominations the bread and wine symbolize the body and blood of Christ in communion, but they do not become them. Hence, my ability to share communion with my friends was unencombered by my lack of ordination.

What struck me throughout this, in addition to the different understanding of what was happening at communion and the amount of necessary ceremony around it, I was also struck by an interesting paradox. Many Lutheran and Catholic churches I have been in practice Open Table or allow any one to come and take communion who wishes. Though this is certainly more the case with Lutherans and other high church protestant denominations. In many Baptist and free churces, the Table is much more closed. Some churches only allow those who have membership to have communion while others offer it only to all those who have recieved Jesus into thier hearts. Do you see the paradox yet? Baptists and other free churches beleive the bread and wine are only symbols of Christ's body and blood yet restrict who should take it. Lutherans and Catholics bielieve the blood and wine actually become Christ's body and blood at the moment of consectration yet allow anyone who wishes to take and eat it. I know I'm probably way over generalizing, but do you see my point?

Please understand I'm not trying to say that one is any better or any less true than the other. To me, whether the bread and wine in some mysitcal way become the body and blood of Christ or they just act as symbols does not make a difference. What really matters is that Christ is present to the beleiver when they take communion. Commnets? Questions? Queries? Ask away!

Weekly Devotions with Mike

Part of my new job as a Resident Chaplain at the V.A. in St. Cloud is to offer devotions once a week. Here's an excerpt from my last one:

Why are we so important to God that He would send His only Son to die for our sakes? It’s often a question I’ve pondered. And I don’t think I’m the only one or even the first. The psalmist once wrote, “What is man, that You care for him?” Yet care God does. But still why? I wish to explore that question a bit in today’s devotion and following. To answer it fully would take more time than I have here and now, so let me just give it a start and maybe wet your appetites to come back for more. I have come to see that God’s care for us began all the way back in the garden when He first created us. According to Genesis 1, we are each made in the image of God. To me this means that every person I come across here at the V.A and in the world is created in the image of God. Therefore when I get to know that person at their deepest level I’m am also getting to know God. When I care for that person, I am caring for God. When I sit and listen to that person go on and on about all their problems, I’m listening to God. When I touch another person, I am touching God. I could go on. Get it yet? In our day to day interactions with each other, we are not only rubbing shoulders with each other, we are also bumping up against God Himself. Truly a sobering thought, and yet also an encouraging one. God has lived in our flesh, He has seen us at our worst, and yet, still He bestows His love upon us. Let us return that love in our daily lives with each other.

Grief: I expected it, but not like this . . .

It was the middle of my first week at my new job as a chaplain resident at the V.A. Center here in St. Cloud, when one of the head chaplains gave a presentation on grief to myself, the other chaplain resident and about a dozen or so recovering chemical dependants. I had expected to hear some stuff of relevance, given that I had just been to my grandmother's funeral that past weekend, yet there was more here than I ever would have expected. The chaplain started explaining how grief happens not only when we lose someone close to us, like Nana Willard, but anytime we lose something we've had a signifigant relationship with or attatchment to. Sometimes something as miner as a change in location or job can also trigger feelings of greif. Over the past two or three weeks, my life had gone through some signifigant changes: I had lost a grandmother, moved to a new city, changed jobs, gotten in a car accident (not my fault), not having as much free time due to the job change, having to change churches due to the location change and the distance between my firnds and I getting geographically bigger. All that came out to a Mike Willard who wasn't feeling his absolute best. Sitting in that classroom, I felt a release of sorts. I was going through a lot. It's okay to feel a bit out of it at times like this. It was like the Holy Spirit was speaking to me from inside my heart saying those often quoted words by Brennan Manning, "It's okay. I'm here. I love you and I'm for you." It was really good to hear that in such an unexpected place and time.