For many years, I believed that our church was filled with two types of people; those who believed in God and those who didn’t. Our messages were aimed at reaching both groups of people. On the one hand, we tried to help those that already believed by deepening their faith and understanding of the Bible. On the other, we tried to convince those that did not yet believe of the reality of God and His desire for a relationship with them…
Feeling like an outsider is always tough. I remember how stressful it was on the first day of going to a new school. Would there be anyone that I know? Will I make friends? Will people like me? Coming to church for the first time can feel like that too. The walk from the car to the door can be a heart-rending experience.
We all want to belong, to connect to others in meaningful ways. We are created for relationships. One of the greatest fears in life is that of being alone…
What difference does my life make? Will it matter that I walked the earth? What legacy will I leave? Will anything in the world be better because I was here? At the end of it all will my life have mattered. These are questions that all of us ponder at times. In moments when we gather ourselves and reflect on days gone by and our years yet to come, we wonder about our contribution to the world, God’s kingdom, our family and just in general…
As a pastor, I have spent a good deal of time visiting people in the hospital. Sometimes it’s a happy occasion – like the birth of a child. Most of the time it’s a difficult season for someone enduring moments of pain, fear and possibly death. I always find it hard to have words to say in those moments, words that don’t sound like a time-worn cliche. I want to make everything better. I want it all to just go away. I want to promise them that they will be healed – but I can’t. I’m not God. I don’t get to make these decisions.
I am a firm believer that we have a reason for everything we do. We don’t always recognize what our reasons are, but we have them. Often, we are motivated by a deep sense of need that we can’t define or describe, but we know it’s there. All human need can be defined at its heart by five universal needs. These are needs that are common to all of us; that get to the marrow of what drives so much of what we think, feel and do. The better we can understand those issues and the passions that lie beneath them, the better we can understand our own motives.
