Two Happy Returns

I'm returning today from two different breaks.  For one, I am returning from more than a year departure from the blogosphere.  I have been working diligently on a book since late October of 2010, which is now in the hands of the publisher and will be available by Christmas (I hope).  I'll post more on that later.  With responsibilities at work and at home I could not write daily for the book and keep up the posting, following and responding on my blog network.  It was a difficult decision to make, and I know it will take some time to return to the wonderful discussions and relationships formed, but i'm looking forward to working at that.  I also returned on Saturday evening from our annual Antioch Community Church  Men's Retreat at Holden Beach.  The trip is always a wonderful time and several great themes emerged from our trip.

First, we had a speaker from Kentucky who completed research related to the family aspect of churches in the United States.  His name is Ryan Steenburg and he has a ministry called Daddy Discipleship in which he challenges men to take a Biblical role in being husbands and fathers.  It was a wonderful time and also quite convicting in that no matter how well one seems to feel one is doing there is always more to learn and improvement that can be made.  The two main points that stuck with me was the need to be intentional daily to know the personalities of your children and train them up according to how God created them.  I have four young children, each with a different personality.  So it is critical that I don't train each one as if all children are alike in all respects.  This takes time and communication between my wife and myself so that we agree on how to work with each one.  Second, Ryan challenged us to understand that the same construction is used in the Bible for "bring up your children" and "nurture and cherish your wife."  Therefore we must not stop loving our wives in a nurturing and caring way just because we have children.  Our responsibilities as men in the home are great, and we must come alongside one another to do it well.

Next we had a discussion on giving in the church.  We focused on the understanding that giving is a physical representation or expression of the recognition that God owns everything.  Many facets of giving then come to the fore.  There is a promise of blessing when we give, even though we don't give for the sake of receiving.  There is a command from the Lord to give, and even if we gave for no other reason than to be obedient there is more to the issue.  Ultimately, God entrusts His people with many different quantifiable elements for which to oversee.  Our time, talents, possessions are existential realities with which we must deal as a part of the nature of our existence.  They remain with us so long as we move about on this planet.  Our responsibility is to recognize that all of them are provisions from God that we are expected to manage.  An attitude to not give is a denial of the One who owns all we have.  We must acknowledge the Owner of all things by managing well that which we have been entrusted and be joyful in generosity as we have been commanded.

I had a quick presentation on the book and some themes that came to the forefront through the year of writing (which i'll take up in the next couple of posts).  And then our final session was dealing with prayer.  We focused in on the fact that a robust prayer life comes with a more complete understanding of our position of desperation.  Put another way, the better we understand how limited and finite and contingent/dependent we are on God for everything the more we will desperately seek Him out for direction, ability and guidance.  That is the essence of prayer.  Approaching God because of our understanding of our desperate state is a return to our original state of being.  Created in His image to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever, as opposed to how we behave a react since the fall - constantly seeking autonomy and separation from God to do our own thing. To approach it from the negative, we could say the more we see ourselves and our ability as the means to live out our lives on a daily basis, then we will look to God less and therefore pray less.  So then it follows that what we need is a constant refreshing in our minds of how dependent we are on God, which will naturally drive us to talk with Him and express our dependence and need for the grace and mercy of the Lord in all things.

So, as is many times the case, it was good to have been away and great to be back.