Do you ever practice walking?

For the first two years of high school, I learned how to toot my trumpet while walking in strange patterns, dressed in polyester green pants with a large top-hot (or sometimes a small black beret) -- yes, I was in Marching Band.  

Unlike many of my friends, I didn’t enjoy marching band all that much. There were definitely some fun moments, but overall, band just wasn’t my thing. (Although you should ask me sometime about the time I hopped out of formation to shake the hand of Prince Phillip when we were marching in the Prince Phillip parade in Canada. It’s a good story.) I’m sure part of the problem was that I just wasn’t very committed to being a better trumpet player, and I’m sure the other part was that marching in the fall in Oregon is often a chilly, and frequently a soggy experience.

I remember showing up for band camp for the first time, my freshman year of high school. We started camp a couple of weeks before school started and while the football players were running through summer drills, we were learning how to walk. Literally. You see, in order to march and play an instrument, you have to be able to move without “bouncing”. If your whole body is bouncing up and down while you walk, it’s very challenging to keep a trumpet on your lips and sound coming out of the trumpet.

So to walk smoothly, you do an interesting heel-to-toe movement and really roll out your pace. But it’s also important that you not take too large a step or the movement isn’t as effective. To help us learn this pace, especially for us newbie freshmen, there was a place called “The Quad” set up outside the band room at one of the entrances to the school.

Basically the quad was 5-sided design (odd to call it a “quad”, right?) painted on the ground that had little hash marks every 18” or so (I’m not sure of the exact measurements). The point of the quad was to walk around it, over and over, making sure that on every step your heel landed on the next hash. The quad was teaching us how far to step, while allowing us to get comfortable with the rolling movement.

It was also a torture device and a fine source of punishment. On more than one occasion our band teacher, Mr. Jones, would be so frustrated with our lack of focus or attention, he’d simply point outside and say, “Hit the quad!” and then watch us walk for the next 20 minutes while he figured out how to get through to us. Freshman had to walk the quad more than anyone else, too, as we had the most to learn about marching. During that first band camp (two weeks long) I probably spent 40 hours walking the quad.

We had to endure the quad so that when performance time came, we were ready to show we knew how to “march” in-step with the music. The quad wasn’t the fun part of marching band, but without it, I’m not sure we ever would have had the right look. Some people would have been taking quick brisk steps out on the field, while others would have been strolling. The quad made everyone’s step look the same, so that on the field, we marched as a unit. The quad made it possible for us to compete.

Do you practice walking? Probably not, because unless you’ve had an injury or been in an accident, you’ve been walking most of your life and have it down pretty well. But what about walking in your faith? Do you ever practice that?

I think most of us treat the Overboard Life like a series of unconnected events. We kind of think that there will be these moments when we have to step out in faith, have to really trust God, but in-between those moments, life just kind of scoots by. It’s almost like we wait around for the marching band performance at the half-time of the football game, but we don’t spend any time in the quad before hand.

The reality is, when those big moments come to test our faith, we won’t be ready to march if haven’t been practicing before hand! In 2 Peter 1, Peter tells us how to practice exercising our faith:

“For this reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.” (2 Peter 1:5-7). Faith is the foundation, but we grow in our faith by “practicing” the others virtues. This is how we make sure we’re ready when the next test of our faith comes. Look what Peter writes next: “For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We practice so that we’re ready to produce.

How’s your practice going? Are you wanting to march without taking the time to work the quad? The best marching happens after we’ve prepared ourselves. Likewise, your faith will grow through practice, by adding to it according to 2 Peter, so that when the time comes to get out of the boat, you’ll already know how to walk on water. The Overboard Life isn’t a series of events where we exercise our faith in key moments, it’s a lifestyle we practice every day!

13 down, 27 to go.

Go ahead and take the plunge, life is better, every day, on the water!

6 months ago today...

I’ll never forget the moment. As we pulled out of my parents’ driveway, there were a lot of people seeing us off. My dad was comforting my sobbing mom, my sister and her kids all waved goodbye through tears and my brother and his family stood by as we headed out, alongside my brother-in-law, Ellen and several other friends from church. Inside the van, things weren’t much dryer, as none of us were really ready to say goodbye to so many great friends and family.

That day was March 16, 2013 and it was six month ago today that we began our move from Salem, Oregon to Lake Ann, Michigan.

The process that lead to that move can be read on previous blogs, but today as I look back over six months of living in Michigan, there are a few key lessons I’ve learned -- maybe these will encourage you.

The process of growth is often the product of growth

I think I often look as growth as a destination. I think, “once I get through [insert life-changing event here] I will be [enter superhuman power here].” As I look back over six months of life change here in Michigan I’m realizing that the process of growth is the product that I desire. In other words, what I am becoming is a direct result of how I work through the process of growing, not in where that process leads me.

Living in Michigan hasn’t changed me (although I’ve never worn so many hoodies throughout the summer months!), but the process of moving to Michigan has radically shaped my life. In fact, I think I could have gone through this process and ended up staying in Salem, and I would have experienced the same type of life change. The process of growth creates the change God is working in my life.

James said it this way, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials [aka: personal growth opportunities!] because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and compete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4)

Notice that it isn’t the victory over trials that James says produces growth, but rather, the working through them…perseverance!…that produces the character God wants to develop in us. The process of growth produces the life change God wants to perform in me. When I short-change the process, I short-change the end product.

It pleases God to bring joy to His children

I don’t know if it was the conservative church context I grew up in, or whether or not I simply missed it (and both are distinct possibilities), but somehow I grew up not understanding how much God delights in His children. Two times in the New Testament Jesus was said to be “full of joy,” and both instances occurred in relationship to His disciples (not to His own activity). All throughout the Scriptures, we are told about the joy of God in regards to His children.

In Jeremiah 32:41 God says to the prophet, “I will rejoice in doing them good…”  What a profound statement to think that God rejoices in doing good to His Children! If you have children, you totally understand Jeremiah’s words. There is something intensely joyful about doing something your children love. When you grant them a wish, when you give them a special gift, when you surprise them with blessing -- you smile almost as much as they do! How much more that Almighty Creator God, who knows you better than you know yourself! When He does good to you and to me, it is precisely what we need, and He rejoices.

In Zephaniah 3:17 we read, “I [God] will rejoice over you with gladness…” It seems almost redundant, but maybe that’s the point -- if you missed it the first time, please understand that God rejoices over you with gladness. Doesn’t rejoicing imply gladness? God is joyful, He is glad, to bless you with His resources.

We have been the recipients of God’s amazing blessing through this growing process. And while we know we could never earn His favor on our own (thank you Jesus for making it possible!), we marvel that God smiles and is glad to shower us with goodness. He hasn’t blessed us reluctantly, but joyfully. Somehow, that makes the gifts have even more value.

God’s path is always the best path

I know it’s nothing new, but this journey has reminded us to always seek the path of God. The Bible tells us many stories where the path of God seemed to be ‘off’ one way or the other, only to end up taking God’s people precisely where they needed to be, when they needed to be there. It seems that God is rarely early, and usually doesn’t give the most direct flights. However, He is never late, and what may appear to be a random series of layovers and stops, is actually the most direct travel for the process of growing.

I wouldn’t have chosen Michigan on my own. Honestly, I was looking at ministry on a small island near Maui. Seriously. But the journey God began for Traci and I didn’t start with Michigan as the end, and it didn’t start six months ago. We can look back five years and see how God started the work to prepare us for this leg of the journey. And whatever may lie ahead for us, I am certain of this truth: staying on this path that God has defined as our route, is always going to be best. (I may need to be reminded of that when the 5th month of winter rolls through!)

The Overboard Life is constantly in motion; not because we are constantly on the move, but because we must constantly be in the process of growing. It’s not always easy, nor is always fun, but the end product is worth the trouble. Are you growing? What has God brought into your life as an opportunity to be more of who He made you to be? Are you trusting His path? Are you rejoicing in goodness of God?

Go ahead and take the plunge, life is always better on the water!