Posted on

He Showed Me The Gospel

by

house_of_cards

Last week my youth pastor Dane Burk went home to be with Jesus after a courageous battle with brain cancer. I woke early the next morning, my sneakers crunching the fall leaves as I jogged through my neighborhood streets, pondering a life well lived.

Youth pastoring is not an easy job. Dane Burk made it a point to stick with me and the other teenagers in my class from our freshman year until we graduated high school. He wanted to see us through to the end of that season of our lives. And he did a fabulous job.

I wrote several months ago about Dane and some of the ways that his life impacted my own, but some people are just worthy of double honor and double mention. To me and for my life, Dane Burk is one of those rare people.

Two Moments I’ll Never Forget

I wanted to share today about how Dane Burk demonstrated the essence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to me in two very important “God-moments” in my life. These two moments have shaped and influenced me in ways that I cannot begin to describe in words, but today I will try.

These two moments center around an event which happened when I was 17 years old. Our youth group went on a short term missions trip to Ecuador.

Dane encouraged my spiritual gifts and always pointed out how he saw the gift of leadership in my life. He always urged me to use those gifts to serve and to love others.

I will admit there was considerable religious pride and self-righteousness in my heart as a young adult. I took pride in my “good behavior” and “outward deeds” that I thought proved my spiritual commitment.

Back to our Ecuador trip. The trip started off great but ended horribly due to a handful of the youth sneaking alcohol the last evening of the trip. This little group included me. After trying so hard to be “good,” I, the “righteous saint who wouldn’t touch that stuff” had become recklessly drunk. On a missions trip.

I have always steered away from telling this story. Basically to anyone. It’s utterly humiliating in every way. And those of you who were there with me know how devastating it was. In fact, that moment is probably the most humiliating moment of my entire life.

So why, you may ask, would I share this in such a public fashion? Because God used this humiliating moment in my life to draw me closer to Himself than I had ever been before. And Dane Burk was in the center of His work in my life.

First Moment: I sat beside Dane on the plane ride home from Ecuador. He wept for me. Not just a few tears. He wept hard, his whole body shaking, for a long time.

In that moment, I saw how deeply he loved me as a pastor.

He did not abandon me. He did not condemn me. He bore humiliation with me and walked with me through every devastating and painful moment.

Breaking Down My House of Cards

Second Moment: After the pain and shock and humiliation had waned a bit, I hobbled like a bruised and broken lamb into a coffee shop alone to meet with Dane. I will never forget his words to me that day. Ever. They are burned like fire into my soul.

coffee.daneburkblog

He took out some cards and built a tower with them. He said, “Laura, for a long time you built yourself up by your own works, righteousness, and goodness.”

Then Dane knocked the tower down. He continued, “But in a moment, all that pride in your own goodness came crashing down. God allowed you to see the depth of your sinful nature so that you might know the depth of your need for Him.”

He took out the cards again and said, “God wants to give you a clean start with a new foundation. He wants Jesus alone – His sinless life, the perfect sacrifice of Himself on the Cross, His resurrection from the dead – to be your foundation now.”

“He wants to rebuild you with His goodness, His mercy, His grace, His love, His power, His truth.”

In this moment, I saw the Gospel more clearly than I ever had before, even though I had been a Christian for years.

Why? I had been brought very, very low by my sin and recognized my deep need for a Savior. I realized that my own righteousness was like filthy rags to God and that there were no works I could do on my own to earn my way to Heaven.

I accepted that Jesus alone had made a way for me through His death on the Cross.

This was a turning point in my spiritual life that I will always look back on with great joy. Not because of the utterly humiliating experience that resulted from my sin, but because God used this experience to teach me what it means to be truly humbled, to know the wretchedness of my sin and my utter inadequacy to atone for it myself.

Some people who I considered good friends stopped speaking to me after that failure. But Dane did not. And he knew, deep down, what I knew now, too – that I had encountered the truth of the Gospel in a very personal way and I would never be the same.

Today, this precious man is in Heaven above, receiving his reward. And I know that one small thing Jesus will reward him for is the way he responded to a broken, humiliated teenage girl when she really needed mercy, love and the message of the Gospel.

Thank you, Dane. Thank you so much. I will never, ever forget your words of wisdom and heart of love.

Until we meet again….

Posted on

Living a Life that Says “Welcome!”

by

image
“In Ireland, you go to someone’s house, and she asks you if you want a cup of tea. You say no, thank you, you’re really just fine. She asks if you’re sure. You say of course you’re sure, really, you don’t need a thing. Except they pronounce it ting. You don’t need a ting. Well, she says then, I was going to get myself some anyway, so it would be no trouble. Ah, you say, well, if you were going to get yourself some, I wouldn’t mind a spot of tea, at that, so long as it’s no trouble and I can give you a hand in the kitchen. Then you go through the whole thing all over again until you both end up in the kitchen drinking tea and chatting. In America, someone asks you if you want a cup of tea, you say no, and then you don’t get any tea. I liked the Irish way better.” ― C.E. Murphy

Face Time and Front Porches

I grew up in a neighborhood in Northeast Georgia where everyone knew one another. I couldn’t go jogging without stopping to chat to 3-4 neighbors along the way and hear the latest news about their families.

One of the greatest assets of my home growing up was our front porch. My parents sat out front every morning drinking their coffee and reading the newspaper.

Neighbors wandered by and didn’t think twice about stopping over to hang out on the porch with us and have some coffee, too. To this day, my parents still practice this morning ritual and even have a sugar jar ready for their friend who likes sugar in his coffee.

image

In the summer, my family spent most of our time on our dock at the lake – which is just another “front porch” for community to gather.

Making Reservations

When I first moved to the Washington D.C. area, one of my first observations was how busy everyone seemed to be. Power suits, power lunches, power naps, power everything, it seemed.

Sadly, it is easy for our lives to get so busy that we have no room for spontaneous hospitality any more. We may see every knock on our front door as an interruption to our well-scheduled lives. But this should not be the case!

Jesus often stopped what he was doing to minister to one person. One person in a crowd of thousands was still important to Him. Still worthy of his unique attention and affection. His second greatest commandment (after loving God) was “love your neighbor as yourself.”

You simply cannot love your neighbor without knowing them and interacting in their lives.

A Life that Says “Welcome”

Today I live in an AMAZING neighborhood once again. The people in Cheverly, Maryland are an “open door-can I bring you a meal?-pull up a chair and stay awhile” kind of people. And they truly make my heart sing. I can’t walk anywhere without running into someone I know or someone I haven’t met who will soon become a friend.

There’s a time to close our doors and have family time. There’s a time for personal solitude. And scheduling definitely has its place (as a mom of three kids I know this well!)

But I often ponder what we as a family can adjust in our lives and schedules so that there is ample time and room for guests to pop in unexpectedly and have a cup of tea? to hang out in our yard and ride our swing? to spontaneously swing by and end up staying for dinner?

You may not have a front porch, but your home still sends a message to everyone who walks by it. Does your life and home speak “I’m open! Come on over!” or do passers-by get the unspoken but clear message “Stay away – we’re busy”?

You don’t lots of Martha Stuart stuff or an immaculate home to be a good host. All you need is an open door, a smile, and a hot cup of tea – just a life that says “you’re welcome here!”

Posted on

Why You Should Plan a Spiritual Retreat

by

image
“In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion.” – Albert Camus

I sat in the quiet of a simple room in the Madonna House in Washington, D.C. looking out the window with Bible and journal in hand, pen poised and ready.

I was alone. As a mother of three children 5 and under, it is hard to get alone time. At all. Even when you go to the bathroom. So the fact that I was here – that I actually made it – was a small miracle.

My original intention for this time was to plan – to put together a daily homeschooling schedule and read through all the curricula that I had so dutifully researched and purchased for the school year.

But God had other plans.

Pray Before You Plan

A few days before my “planning retreat” a friend told me she would like to come with me. “We could go to the Madonna House,” she said. I had never heard of it, but the more she shared the more I felt my soul sigh with relief.

image

A spiritual oasis on Capitol Hill, this humble row house is run by two nuns who have come here with no other agenda than to pray for the people in our city and open up the home to those who desire spiritual retreat.

The night before going, as I packed up curriculum and notebooks, The Lord arrested me with these words, “Put those away – just go there and pray.”

Whenever God shifts my plans like this, I get excited. I know He is going to speak or move in my life in a way that I hadn’t expected. I lay in bed that night smiling like a child on Christmas Eve.

The next day, my husband dropped me off at the Madonna House. Even as I stood on the steps, I felt the weight of the burdens I had carried there fall off my shoulders. I was going to meet with God.

My friend and I exchanged greetings and were directed to small separate rooms – rooms that held nothing but a bed, a desk with a Bible on it, and a dresser in the corner.

The simplicity of the place alone made me breathe easier. No scattered toys or piles of laundry. My soul began to breathe, too.

image

A Three Hour Retreat

I didn’t have 24 hours. I had a morning – three hours to be precise. But in those three little hours God met me in a deeply personal way, enlarging my perspective and graciously granting me the spiritual framework for our entire year of school.

I prayed over all three of my daughters and lingered long over each one, asking Christ for wisdom in how to teach and guide them.

He responded. Not with flames of fire but with soft, gentle whispers from His Word and Spirit that I would not have heard if I had not allowed my soul to get quiet enough to hear them.

I walked away entirely confident that God was with me and that He had given me His plan for our school year. I opened the curricula later with new perspective and purpose.

We often think we should plan and then pray about our plans, but we have it mixed up. Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit your work to The Lord, and your plans will be established.

Why Should You Go on A Spiritual Retreat?

You should go because every soul needs moments of quiet and spaces to breathe, rest, recover from the scrapes and dents of daily life.

You should go when you have a big task, trip, move, step, leap, or transition ahead and you need to gain God’s wisdom.

You should go to simply refresh your soul with vision for the task and the call He has currently given to you.

You don’t need long – even a few hours will suffice. But just go – to a retreat center, a park, a beach, a lake, anywhere you know you can truly relax and focus. Your body, soul, and family will be glad that you did.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...