derrickhurst.org

living for eternity today

Tag: challenge

The Necessity Of The Hunter

September 7, 2023 / / 1 Comment

Yellowstone National Park is a beautiful place. My family took our last long vacation out to Yellowstone and the surrounding area. We absolutely loved everything about it. The scenery was amazing. There was wildlife everywhere. The trees were huge and fields filled with green grasses and other natural elements. The rivers were beautifully bubbling streams of sparkling water. But it didn’t always used to be that way.

In the early 1990s things in the park didn’t look quite like this. The elk had nearly overpopulated the park. The grass was more sparse. The trees were stripped of bark. The rivers and streams weren’t as clean. All of it because there were too many elk populating the park. But why were there so many elk? Good question! I’m glad you asked.

It all started in the late 1800s and early 1900s when it was open season on the gray wolf. By the end of the 1920s the gray wolf was eradicated from the park altogether. Some thought this was going to be helpful. From not having to worry about visitors to the park region being attacked by a wolf to giving some freedom for the elk to run free, getting rid of the wolf seemed the right thing to do at the time. But little did they know at the time, removing the hunter from the park would have drastic effects on the entire ecosystem of Yellowstone.

Then in 1995 a truck carrying eight gray wolves came into the park and released a controlled population back into the system. What followed could only be hoped for…the park returned to a thriving ecosystem. It turns out hunter are necessary for a thriving system. Predators, while doing bad things in the eyes of some, are necessary to create an atmosphere where all can thrive.

This truth transfers beyond wolves in a national park. As a matter of fact, I think in our lives in general we need predators. We need those people who contradict us and challenge us. Those who seemingly are out to get us because they keep us on our toes.

Just like bringing the wolves back to Yellowstone balanced the ecosystem and brought the elk population back in check which made the rivers run cleaner – so also having some of these challenges in our lives brings our lives back on track as well.

We like to eliminate the problems and run from adversity, but perhaps we should embrace some of the challenges in life a little more intentionally. Perhaps we should give thanks for the circumstances in our lives that make us more alert. Paul tells us to rejoice in all things and to even have joy in our trials. This is very likely the reason why.

In the church we like to complain when things don’t go right, when the government oversteps a line, when we feel like being a Christian is hard. But living a life without challenges is a lot like Yellowstone without wolves. We become complacent and think the world owes us something. We dry up and start caring less about the world around us. Eventually the streams of life get all muddy with troubles of the world and we forget what’s most important.

I’ve heard so many lately say that it’s getting harder and harder to be a pastor in the world. Oddly enough Jesus never told us it would be easy. As a matter of fact if it is easy, I tend to believe that we’re probably not doing something right. Jesus told us that we’ll have struggles in this life. He said the world will try to do to his followers what they did to him. Sure sounds like we should be expecting trouble of some sort doesn’t it?

Look. I know it’s no fun being pursued by wolves. I’ve been in my fair share of situations where someone has thought I was prey. But when we have friendships where people turn on us, jobs where coworkers don’t like us, scenarios where we’re not fully embraced – those moments shape us into who we’re supposed to be.

My advice. Don’t necessarily pray for wolves to surround you. But I would thank God for the times when you are pursued by a predator because predators aren’t always evil. Sometimes predators are necessary to help you live a more alert, focused, and dynamic life.

Never Give Up

July 13, 2022 / / 0 Comments

I was recently given a book titled Walk In My Combat Boots. It’s a collection of stories from men and women who have served in military service here in the United States. They are from all branches of the United States Military but they had a very common theme. Never give up.

No, they didn’t come right out and say that line. It’s not a quote from anything on the pages of this book, but each story contained a scenario that would have caused most humans at best to freeze in their tracks and give their calling a second thought. However on every page of this book are written the stories of the brave men and women who, even in the face of massive adversity and even probable death, didn’t want to throw in the towel. They wanted to get back to their job. They wanted to go back to the fight. They demanded to get back to their brothers and sisters in arms.

Now some of you are men and women who’ve served, so for you this is likely a part of your thought process still to this day. And for that service, I say thank you. I don’t know all you gave up, but as an Army dad I know in part what that sacrifice looks like in my own son.

But for the rest of us, who’ve never dawned the uniform from any branch of service, I think we’ve grown pretty weak. Ok not all of us but for sure a sweeping generalization that likely would hold water is that we’ve grown so used to our comforts that we’ve grown weak. Giving up is easier than persevering and we know it.

While it’s true that giving up is far easier than pushing through a problem, giving up will leave you empty and cost you far more than the struggle of persevering. The stories contained in this book deal with lost limbs and severely damaged nerves, emotionally torn men and women who should go home for rehab or sit on the sidelines and let someone else fight this one. But in every single account that was not the reaction of these brave men and women.

Put me back in coach! That’s essentially their call. They realized that giving up now would be giving up when they still have something left to offer.

I like to workout, that’s really no secret. And this theme of never give up has been one I’ve wrestled with over the years. Do I give up too soon? Do I have another set in me? Can I do that last pushup? It’s like the old children’s story The Little Engine That Could. When faced with an obstacle that seems insurmountable, what’s your go to mental state? Do you think you can? Or have you already defeated yourself before you even get started?

I think it was Eisenhower who is credit with the quote Whether think you can or you can’t either way you’re right. Ok so the quote is something along those lines. So often our attitude is a self fulfilling prophecy.

The short answer is to never give up. When you think you’re done, you likely have the capacity to do about 40% more. That means you’re quitting at just beyond half of your potential. Think about that the next time you’re ready to throw in the towel on mile 2 of a 5K run. That means you easily have the potential for that run and then some!

I understand that life is hard and that some situations are legit challenge. But throwing in the towel is not an option. Giving up is not the way to make it through.

Your challenge: do just one more. That’s it. Whatever you’re doing that makes you feel like you want to quit, go just one more. One more rep at the gym. One more mile on the treadmill. One more chapter in that book. Telling your child one more time the same exact thing. One more is all it takes to realize you have more in you than you gave yourself credit for all along.

Never give up! It’ll cost you far more if you give up than the pain of pushing through.

Terrifying Statistics

December 23, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Be kind to your pastors. I know that many of you are just that, extremely kind and generous to your pastors. And to those I have the privilege of doing ministry with you are beyond kind and generous, so I thank you! But the reality is like every profession, Pastors are struggling and according to the studies it seems their struggle is impacting them more than we realized.

Through the last 20+ months many studies have been done on the great resignation and transitions in life and work. But there have also been targeted studies dealing with specific occupations, including pastors. The most recent study shows that pastors are hurting…bad!

The shocking statistic shows that nationwide over 38% of pastors are or have been contemplating leaving their position. And to make that even more real the research broke that out to pastors from mainline denominations where the number skyrocketed to 51% of pastors contemplating leaving! That’s scary!

Now before we get all suck it up buttercup, which is my normal reaction to things like this, we have to understand the landscape a bit. As pastors, we were not trained on how to lead and do ministry in a divisive context. We were not given the tools and resources on how to handle real relationships in congregations that we thought were strong implode overnight. We are not financial gurus. We are not perfect husbands and fathers. We are not superbly gifted in leadership or administration. For some reason many pastors act as if this whole church thing is a competition or something. We are taught, albeit implicitly, that growing churches with good finances and clear discipleship growth is a sign of healthy leadership and good biblical teaching. If we’re not seeing these things then are we really doing our jobs right?

I have to tell you these are dangerous places to sit!

If you’ve made it this far and you’re not a pastor, this one is for you. What can you do? Encourage your pastor. I don’t mean give them gifts, but real encouragement. Not just a good sermon pastor comment on the way out the door. Share a story of how the bible came to life in your week. Tell of the struggles you’re facing as you seek to apply the biblical teaching to your job as a teacher or trash collector or physician. Ask them questions about things you don’t understand in your daily devotional life. Show up! Seriously, a great source of encouragement for your pastor is to just be present. Be present in worship. Be present in bible class. Be present in service to those around you in your congregation and community. Be present in sharing your faith story with those around you.

Look pastors it’s going to be hard. And if I’m being honest, and not some negative Nancy, it’s going to get worse. I know that doesn’t sound very encouraging. But stick with me. The one thing you can do to break through this time of challenge and desire to quit is to realize what you’re actually here to do.

Your God-given mission is not to grow the church. Your call is not to build a bigger building or call another staff member. Your goal isn’t to get your members back in church or to make all the right decisions. Your call has nothing to do with balancing a budget. These are all good things and things to work toward, but they are not the main thing.

We are called to do two things: preach and administer God’s good gifts (sacraments). Really and truly that’s what we’re here to do. We are here to give away to our churches and communities everyday the wonderful message of how grace conquered sin, death and hell. We are called to make sure the gifts of baptism and communion are present as often as possible and that those who come participate in these gifts know what they are and why they are of value.

If I can give you any encouragement brothers it is this. You’re not in this alone so stop acting like it. Whether you’re in a mainline denomination or a nondenominational setting, there are thousands of us called by God to bring the joy of Christ to the world around us. Reach out to another pastor. Confide in your leadership. Share your struggles and your successes. It’s ok to celebrate the wins no matter how small! It’s ok to mourn the losses no matter the size. Reach out to someone if you’re struggling. Pray with your people. Know that we’re in this together, so reach out and we’ll share the burdens of ministry together.

Stay the course my friends. Reach out if you need some encouragement and coaching. I’m always here.

Time to Take a Risk

July 23, 2021 / / 0 Comments

If you knew me growing up, you would have probably pegged me as a cautious, backward, quiet person who was anything but a risk taker. And to be honest, you’d be completely correct. And to a large part I feel that I am still some of these things.

While I’m not quiet anymore by any stretch of the imagination and pretty much the obvious of backward, I’ve been wrestling with the idea of risk. Do I take enough risks in my life? Am I really doing anything that would be measured as stepping out in faith and doing something that in any way could come back and bite me in the backside? Am I risking losing something to gain something far greater?

I’m reminded of a story in the Bible about a man who left sums of money to three of his workers. Each of them were given different amounts and each of them reacted differently to the money they were given. They knew their boss was a harsh man and that he was shrewd in his business dealings and this informed how they were going to react.

One man took some big risks and ended up doubling his money. It doesn’t say exactly what he did but he didn’t just throw it in the bank. And the second guy who started with about half what the first guy did had the same result. These two men understood the character of their boss and took some significant risks. They could have lost it all and that might not have had the same ending!

The third guy however had the smallest amount to start with and ended up just hiding the money and simple returning it when the boss returned. No less than he was given and no more either. He didn’t take a risk at all. He just buried it. The boss was livid because he saw that as a total waste of time and effort. The man could have at a minimum put the money in the bank and drawn some form of interest!

I think about my life and I wonder if I’ve really done anything that was risky? I don’t really know if I can answer that but I have an uneasy feeling lately that says more needs to be done. I just keep having this overwhelming feeling that God’s given me some form of a gift and that while I’m faithfully using it. I’m not sure I’m doing anything more than playing it safe and investing it. There’s nothing wrong with the work being done or the results of the work being done, but the times in which we’re living mean just enough isn’t really enough anymore. More has to be done. A greater risk has to be taken to live out the calling God has placed on my life. It’s time to stop burying the gifts I’ve been given. It’s time to stop merely investing them. It’s time to risk it all.

I don’t know what that looks like in your context by any means. Shoot I don’t really even know what that looks like in my own context! I just know that the time is now for me as a follower of Jesus and a pastor to do more. It’s time for the church to do more. It’s time to stop burying the talent, or even just investing it. It’s time to take some calculated risks for the sake of the Kingdom.

What’s your first move?

Eternal Pendulum

July 19, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Living in Central Ohio something most parents will do at least once in their children’s younger years is go to COSI. COSI stands for Center of Science and Industry. It’s one of those cool hands on museums for children (children of all ages)! When you walk into the main entry of COSI, you’re met by a huge pendulum. Well at least you used to be, admittedly I haven’t been there for years but it used to be there.

The pendulum was a super cool focal point when you first enter the facility. The pendulum from my understanding swings continually and never stops. This is due in large part to the length of the cable, weight and symmetry of the bob at the end of the cable, and an electromagnet near the top of the cable. The pendulum will swing back and forth continuously day and night. The really cool part is that when the earth rotates around its axis, the pendulum stays swinging in the same plane. So while it looks like the pendulum is rotating, really the earth is rotating under the pendulum.

At any rate, the pendulum is smooth in its transition back and forth. The cycle is unbroken. Forward, backward, forward, backward. The rhythm is soothing and somehow comforting in its stability and predictability.

Now I want you to try to imagine your life kind of like that pendulum. Imagine for a minute the cycles that your life goes through. There are cycles in our lives that repeat themselves over and over again. These cycles can be called a lot of different things and they apply to just about every scenario in which we find ourselves. There are work – rest cycles, or peace – chaos cycles, health – illness, energy – exhaustion cycles. Each of these will run back and forth on the pendulum of life.

The challenge for us as we swing through these cycles, aside from not getting sick from the back and forth, is to cherish each position along the swing of the pendulum. There are generally four things that happen along this pendulum. We go from rest to change to growth to great productivity. The more we fight this naturally swinging pendulum the shorter the gap between our work and our rest. The more we fight living out our calling as followers of Christ in our given stations in life, the more we’ll settle for mindless work that simply drains us.

The more we fight our times of rest, the less restful they become. The more we just do busy work because we feel we should be doing something, the less fulfilling it is and the more tired it makes us. The sweet spot in life is when we can rest while we’re working. We’ve narrowed the view of rest to the point that it becomes impossible to anything other than sit with our butt in the sand at the beach or curled up to a good book on a rainy day.

But when we truly find the pendulum balance in life, we quickly realize that rest can actually be found in doing the work we were called to do. We can work through our rest and rest in our work. There will be times when we need to pull away and rest and times when we need to sink ourselves into a task to accomplish it. But the majority of the time we can maintain a perfect swing through life finding rest in the purposeful work we’ve been created to do.

So cherish the swing. Be like a kid again and swing from rest to work making stops at change and growth along the way. Change is good. Growth is good but neither are easy. We need to be diligent in our working and intentional about our resting to get the most out of the change and growth portions of our swinging pendulum.

Enjoy swinging my friends. It’s the only way to live.

Invitation & Challenge

February 10, 2021 / / 0 Comments

I’m currently cramming through a book to join a group that’s been together for a few months already and need to get caught up. And this dichotomy shows up in the first couple of chapters. It’s the dichotomy of invitation and challenge. Now that doesn’t mean a lot at face value but if you give me about 4 mins of your time and read this there’s stuff here that can apply to just about everyone’s life.

So the idea of invitation and challenge was brought up in the context of breaking a horse. I’m really not a big fan of here terminology of breaking something but I hope you know what that means. Simply put, it’s making a wild horse a little less wild. Some would do this by beating the horse and breaking their spirit. Some would do this by attempting to ride them in a body of water making it harder for the horse to kick and buck the off. But the book uses a different analogy and that’s how a horse is welcomed into a herd in the wild.

It’s something that the author calls invitation and challenge. The idea behind invitation and challenge is pretty simple, and it is super helpful in how we raise up leaders and even teach our children how to grow and mature. In what follows I will unpack the two sides of invitation and challenge and apply them to basic relationship and leadership settings.

There is a back and forth that needs to happen in every relationship. It is all about welcoming and getting to know the other person on their terms. And then offering up a challenge of sorts to show there are expectation and who ultimately has authority.

Invitation is welcoming someone in and drawing them close. In the illustration of the horses used above, the outsider horse is greeted by a female horse from the herd. The mare would turn sideways and in a show of vulnerability would bare her side. This is the weakest part of the horse if you didn’t know. By turning she was indicating that she came with no ill intention and is willing to let the outsider horse come closer. As the outsider draws in a little, the mare turns forward facing and enters into a stare down of sorts.

This is the challenge. This is a show of power and strength. While the outsider may be larger or stronger or faster, the mare carries with her the authority of the entire herd. She is not easily moved and if so she has the rest of the group behind her.

This goes back and forth between invitation and challenge as the outsider draws ever closer yet is kept in check by the mare’s direct stare from time to time. Eventually the outsider is “broken” into the herd and all is good.

Now as we translate that into our relationships with our children, coworkers, employees, neighbors, etc. The principles remain the same. We need to be gentle and open and welcoming. We need to be vulnerable and willing to let our guard down a little bit. We need to be more intentional about our sense of invitation when it comes to these and frankly all relationships.

But at the same time we need space to challenge one another. We need to set rules for our children to obey. We need to keep employees on task and coworkers need held accountable.

So as we go through life there needs to be a more intentional trade off between invitation and challenge. As Christians this is a great model for discipleship and growing in our faith development. We need to invite into a relationship with others. Jesus did this with the twelve disciples. But he didn’t let them get too comfy because soon he woudl send them out to do the stuff he was talking about. He told them that they would have to change. The old needs to go away and the new needs to be born into us.

This is the amazing and fantastic dichotomy of saint and sinner. We’re invited in through grace which is the good news of God. And because of that invitation our lives look different. It’s what James talked about in the bible. A faith without works is dead. There must be a life change that happens when we follow up on God’s invitation.

There’s a lot here so we’ll end at that. Invitation and challenge find a balance and strengthen relationships. Super simple just not always easy.

Yes. I Meant What I Said

November 11, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Something I said on Sunday has caused a few eyebrows to raise. Surely, you didn’t mean what you said – was one reply. I have a feeling more than just a few people were a bit caught off guard by something I said in a recent message, but yes I was very serious. So let me explain.

Assume I’m not getting it right.

This was the gist of one of my points on Sunday in my message titled What the world needs now. The context of that quote was that in my preaching and teaching on the Bible, please don’t just assume that I’m teaching right. Don’t think that just because I’ve been a pastor for 18 years, just because I know Greek and Hebrew, just because I put many, many hours into each week’s message preparation – don’t assume that I have it right.

I don’t say that so that you’ll look at me like a bad person or not believe what I am teaching. Quite the contrary. I want you to believe what I’m teaching. I want you to be able to trust the things in the lessons I teach and messages I preach. But I don’t want you to believe me just because you like me or because I’m a pastor or because I’ve been here for 7 years.

I want you to believe the messages because you’ve studied them and found them to be accurate. I want you to do the hard work of digging through the Bible the way I have to see what the Scripture has to teach us.

You see the point is all too often it’s easy to be Netflix Christians on Sunday morning. Think about it for a minute. When’s the last time you researched to see if that show you’ve been binge watching was based in any form of accuracy.

Is that how you treat the messages on Sunday? Or do you take the bible verses we talk about and trace them through the Bible? Do you look them up? Follow cross references? Do you challenge the points being made in the message to see if they fit the overall Biblical message?

This is what I meant when I encouraged you to not believe me or to assume I wasn’t getting it right. This isn’t true just for the Bible either. It’s kind of what critical thinking is all about. Don’t believe what the world is feeding you. Test it to see if it really is accurate.

Loneliness and Anxiety

October 9, 2020 / / 0 Comments

If there’s anything this pandemic has taught me, it’s the value of people and healthy, strong relationships. Men and women were not created to do life alone, which makes this long and drawn out season of distancing and limited gatherings an extremely challenge time for so many people in our communities.

It’s no wonder the depression rate is on the rise and the suicide rate is skyrocketing. It should be no shock that substance abuse and addiction diagnoses are greater now than in recent history. Loneliness is driving so many to lengths they would never normally go.

Marriages are falling apart. Friendships are being broken down. We’re highlighting problems more than solutions. Compliments have turned to complaints. Love has turned to hate. All we see is the negative in other people.

The spirit of men and women is being broken. It’s being broken by our inability to be around other people. We need to be surrounded by others who can challenge us in a healthy way and encourage us in a loving way. I fear the longer this forced distance goes on the more long lasting harm is going to be done to whatever is left of our relationships.

This distancing is causing loneliness in so many people. And that loneliness is leading to anxiety the likes of which we haven’t seen in decades.

How do you deal with stress and anxiety.

  • Physical activity – Do you workout? Are you a runner?
  • Mental distraction – Do you have a hobby? Love to craft? Is coloring or video games your release?
  • Rest and relaxation – Enjoy napping? or vegging with a movie or video games?
  • Relational release – Find someone you can talk to. Find a friend to lean on emotionally. Who can you call to talk through the difficulties? Who’s already in your life as a constant source of encouragement and grounding?
  • Spiritual connection – An aspect of life we all too easily overlook is the spiritual needs we have. Take time to be in prayer. Take a walk and list the things for which you’re thankful. Spend time reading the Bible. Join with others who believe the same way and study together. Ask someone whose opinion you respect some hard faith questions. Try fasting (who hasn’t packed on a couple pounds since covid started?) Experiment with meditation.

Whatever it is, we all need to find a healthy and nondestructive way to release some tension. Take time to focus on self care. Relieve stress. Rebuild relationships. Restore the basics of your faith system.

These are a few ways you can handle the loneliness and anxiety that are infiltrating our communities and families. What have you found most helpful to help relieve stress? How do you show those around you that you value their friendship?

© 2024 derrickhurst.org

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑