Alan Fadling: Notes from my Unhurried Journey

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 22,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 8 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

I’m back after a two-week break. If you’ve read this blog for long, you’ll know it was the first break I’ve taken from daily posting since May 2009. It felt weird not to post something here. But there is a necessary wisdom of dormancy. The ground sometimes just needs to rest.

I haven’t made as much progress on writing Unhurried Time as I would have wished, but I feel the ground of my mind and heart has rested in ways it needed to so that I can engage this writing work more fruitfully.

I wasn’t completely inactive, though, as I wrote my first guest post for the Conversations Journal blog titled “Images That Stick.”  Here I shared Chuck Miller’s integrative metaphor for Christian life and ministry: pitcher/cup…saucer/plate. If you’ve participated in The Journey or read Chuck’s book, you’ll know what I’m talking about. If not, I hope you’ll take a moment, read that post, and especially, if you would, take a moment to comment.

(I wrote a brief article for the Spring/Summer 2010 edition, which you can download here).

I’m looking forward to returning to posting, but about two or three times a week now.

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A quick post to let you know that I am once again able to receive “ministry support” through your Amazon purchases made starting here on this blog at the link to the right, or on any Amazon link included in future posts. For a season, the state of California (and a number of other states) had a bit of a tiff with Amazon. Seems they’ve made up now. If you plan to make an Amazon purchase, you can benefit this blog by starting your purchase from links like the one below…and thanks in advance.

Click here to make any Amazon purchase in support of this blog.
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Isn’t this our tendency today? God gives us life-giving words and we tend to take them as laws (we use the word “principles”) we must live by. We take God’s encouragement to gather regularly with the people of God (Hebrews 10:24-25) and turn it into a programmatic “have to.” Might Jesus look at some of our structures, events and gatherings today and say something like, “Programs were made for people, not people for programs. So the Son of Man is Lord even of all the programs.” Programs that were started to meet a particular human need can begin to take on a life of their own until people are serving the programs through their continued participation. I have to attend this gathering because it is there to be attended.

The story of Jesus healing the man with a withered hand (Mark 3:1-6) also illustrates this program vs. people tendency. In a sense, we have here the story of a program-focused congregation meeting a people-focused Messiah.

“Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. (Mark 3:2)” Some take even God-given programs, like the Sabbath, and turn them into the master and focus of attention. Then the program becomes more important than the program-giver Himself.

“He looked around them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, `Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. (3:5)” Jesus response to those who are guardians-of-the-program is one of distressed anger. Anger, perhaps, because they are so concerned for the program that they ignore the needs of the people who are sitting right in front of them. Distressed, the text says, because of their stubborn unwillingness to change.

(An edited journal excerpt from April 1, 1991)

As today is my 50th birthday, I will be sharing a ‘repost’ today. If you feel the urge to send expensive gifts, I’ll gladly send along a mailing address! Seriously, I wouldn’t mind hearing from you about any way that this blog has helped you.

♦ ♦ ♦

(Repost from March 2009)

I continue to enjoy Eugene Peterson’s Leap Over a Wall. Below, he describes how life without God (what the Scriptures call “sin”) is finite and eventually boring.

“We have a finite number of ways to sin; God has an infinite number of ways to forgive. After observing the human condition for a few years, we find that in regard to sin we’re mostly watching reruns. After a while we find that people pretty much do the same old thing generation after generation. Sinning doesn’t take much imagination. But forgiveness and salvation? That’s a different story: every time it happens, it’s fresh, original, catching us by surprise.” (p. 190.)

The without-God life is like watching reruns. Every thrill is subject to the law of diminishing returns. What was exciting the first time isn’t exciting the next. What it takes to reach that same level of excitement starts costing more over time as well. There isn’t really anything new under the sun. Haven’t we been there and done that?

But, when we set our hearts and minds on things above from where our salvation comes, we begin to see truly new things take place. I find myself in friendship with an infinitely creative Father. He wants me to live life that is full of zest and joy. No reruns. (But maybe an occasional child-like “do-it-again”).

“In long retrospect over the Jewish and Christian centuries, it’s no exaggeration to say that anything we know about God that’s not prayed soon turns bad. The name of God without prayer to God is the stuff of blasphemy. The truth about God without love for God quickly becomes oppression.” (p. 207.)

Ouch! How much “unprayed theology” has gone sour in me in the past? In what ways have I gotten in the habit of putting insights in the pantry rather than digesting and living them? And why am I surprised when I start to smell something rotting in there? How much information do I know without really knowing it?

Father, continue to help me see theology as an expression of relationship, not merely as information correctly stated or categorized. Knowing Your name offers me the possibility of knowing You better. Knowing Your truth frees me from the deceptions that surround and overwhelm me in this world. May I learn how to give people space to pray what they are learning about God. May every insight become a place of deeper encounter.

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For those of you in the Southern California area, I’d enjoy seeing you at our upcoming “An Unhurried Day with Jesus” at Evergreen Baptist Church Los Angeles on March 12.

Register Online or if you have a group of at least five that you would like to register for an Unhurried Days Retreat, please use this form instead of Individual Registration.

There are also days in Long Beach, CA (March 26) and Irvine, CA (April 2) if this one doesn’t fit your schedule.

By the way, we are currently scheduling Unhurried Days outside of Southern California. If you’d like to talk about bringing one to your church or ministry, feel free to email us at info@tli.cc