No finite picture can even come close to describing to all-consuming love of God. The Bible paints the portrait of a perfect heavenly Father who watches over us and ultimately desires our best. He paradoxically makes Himself glorified and by doing so lifts us up. Maybe most views of the love of God come at the expense of imposing a picture of Santa Claus who sits up in heaven and answers our every beckoning call. Yet other views put him as an unhealthy father or drill sergeant who humans can never please.
This comes out of His work to press and deal with painful issues in my life. This morning I have been working on one of the toughest passages, because of the conviction in my life. While I know God loves me, I have long dealt with wondering about my life adding up while demanding things to change in my life. In this moment, I feel overwhelmed to share how much God loves us:
He loves us enough to withhold good things that we want, because He knows that it is best for us to wait.
He loves us enough to cause pain in discipline for sin so that our lives are not subjected to live under darkness.
He loves us enough to allow suffering, because He knows that our hearts will grow with patience, compassion, and trust for him.
He loves us so much that He makes us see that He is central not our happiness.
All these truths have been repeated in my life. He has big enough shoulders to handle or doubts and disappointments, but more importantly He desires us to know Him in such a rich and deep way. The Savior of the universe calls us to have faith in His death and resurrection, so that we might not just experience it, but live it. Gut wrenching. Troublesome. Encouraging. Hope filling. He is purely motivated and has aligned the planets of our lives for His glory and our good!
Log off every program, before you leave your computer. Any person at that point can make you what they want you to be. People innocently change status updates while you have to explain to the world why your friends think it's funny to post (fill in the blank). This prank has happened to me more times than I would like to admit. Added on top of that my profile name was changed to Peter Fuglert (a bad mailing story) and various other idiosyncrasies.
For my first few years on facebook, I refused to place my relationship status. Not sure if I thought it private or if it could perhaps draw intrigue. Needless to say after one of these so called pranks, one of my friends changed the status for me. For fear of seeing see a news feed with a relationship change, I left the change.
Where does your mind go when you hear the word single? Some would say, the aspect that draws the most importance or focus. Other people might point a quantity less than double, more in the terms of food. I would venture to say most of our minds go to the encompassing status of relationships. Depending on your background certain stigmas coincide with this term. Some would see freedom and endless possibilities, while at times thoughts go to loneliness and seclusion.
This word might be the most intriguing challenge, struggle, and opportunity of my life. People have asked me more questions about this than any other subject. I have probably talked about this a lot also. At times this status serves as the white elephant in the room, but also the common bond of people who hurt.
Why am I writing about this? Quite honestly, this is embarrassing. In some of my deepest goals and expectations, I thought I would be farther along in the process. Either A) I would at least have a candidate to start going into further direction or B) I would be able to say that it really does not matter. Part of the lie of singleness is believing that you are all alone. As many friends that I have that are getting married and moving on in life, I have just as many who still feel the stigma of feeling "single." I don't feel like I have any profound answers, but I think talking about it this issue might bring healing and maybe I'm the one that needs it the most.
Good intentioned people ask about relationships, because they hope some day that a single person can experience a true authentic romance. On the flip side, asking only reinforces the loneliness a person all ready feels. Flattering that people would care so much about your well-being; painful to wonder why this area of life seems the most difficult to resolve. Then there comes the advice like, "it will happen when you're not looking for it" or "there's someone out there for you." Not to mention explanations on why you will not attempt to date someone and the temptation to settle.
This is something I'm dealing with in a variety of ways. Some days, I feel like I am unbelievably content where God has me. Some days, I would rather talk about the economy of Tibet than even hint at the subject. These next couple posts will deal with the lies, expectations, notions, optimism, God's sovereignty, pain, and everything that goes into "single." At this point I hope that people can connect to this whether you are single or you deal with single people. This is a start to clarity in my life and hopefully in the lives of others...
I love California. For the past couple days, I have woken up to see the Pacific Ocean. Even when the thermometer reads 55, the sun has no clouds. Not only the beautiful weather, but for the past three days my friend and I have listened to a great lineup of thinkers, authors, and pastors at a conference called Catalyst. These individuals had a good handle on what they deemed significant and important in their lives.
This conference allowed me to take inventory of those areas which I deem as important. A couple questions surfaced. Does my life communicate their importance? Do I even like the things that I deem important? Would people know without me telling them? Here goes a couple passions, non-negotiables, and important facets of my life.
-Family- Few people you can text at 4:30am to meet you at a Denver airport. Rarely do newly married couples take in their little seminary brother. My folks have driven to any crazy event I have invited to enough times to go to CA and back. Yet beyond my blood family, have been people who are like family. Those people who have shared their lives and have opened their homes. I feel so blessed by both family members who God chose and the others who have become family. I hope you know you are, but in most cases I think you do.
-Pastoring/Discipleship- I’m not quite sure how phrase this one, maybe it would be better titled as church. Basically, since I was 13 years old I have felt a call to share my life with people in the context of church. In my mind there is nothing like people responding to God’s work in their lives God has been so gracious to give me some wonderful opportunities. Sometimes it looks like communicating God’s Word and other times it serving.
-Studying- I have a constant problem of buying more books than I have time to read. More times of refreshing have come at a Starbucks with a book in my hand than I can count. Over and over again the Bible just blows my mind. No matter how many times I read the books of Ephesians, I Peter, and Thessalonians they draw something new. Yet, authors like Malcolm Gladwell, John Ortberg, John Piper, and Kathleen Norris have convicted and inspired me. There’s just nothing like a good one liner.
-Creativity and Communicating- Interestingly enough I took an assessment that said out 21 points of extraversion my score was 19. That does not mean just talking. I’ve been journaling for about six years now. I love to put ideas to a keyboard or on paper. Creating thoughtful dialogue and sharing in the human experience have vastly affected me.
What does this all mean? I still love Starbucks, Jets, Yankees, Nets, and any random situation worth putting on social media, but the firm conviction of my life is to communicate those things that have value and importance in my life whether by photos, blogs, tweets, or updates. Twice, speakers quoted Abraham Kuyper by saying, “In the total expanse of human life there is not a single square inch of which the Christ, who alone is sovereign, does not declare, 'That is mine!'” All of which I hope can be true of my motivations and use of this arena.
Hopefully, social media allows all of us to cultivate a space to share our lives with each other. Please value people and their privacy. As always remember not to over-tweet with trivial so that people do not miss the important, and give extraverts grace to share. Open the conversation with thoughtful dialogue and do not discourage. Here we go…
August 28, 2009, the downtown coffee stop bustled with visitors. Everyone from the Armani suited business man to the young beautiful artisan. Ebeneezer's coffee shop sits a stones throw away from Union Station in the illustrious capitol of the USA. The following week had included the post registration of the freshman students. The work of an Admissions Counselor never ends only slows down to catch your breath. I sat with my Bible open to the anthology of Thessalonians.
Every person has an internal clock that tells them to slow down. Start taking life in focus. This three hour coffee stop only intensified my need to come back to gravity. The past six months came as a hurricane. A three week trip from Springfield, MO turned into a permanent move back to Phoenixville, PA. Since starting in the Admissions department in May, life rolled at an accelerating pace. Long days at the office mixed with involvement with my old college church and random activities along the way.
Thessalonians includes a strange affinity to those in Christian service. The Apostle Paul takes the voice of the life coach or better yet the trusted parent. He never shies away from stern rebuke, but pads that with prayers offered up of thanksgiving. As you read these books, the overwhelming inference concludes that these Thessalonians value extends from the grace of the living and active Jesus Christ. So that brings Paul tension between his overwhelming joy, but also the Thessalonians ability for the Gospel to manifest in their real life.
Towards the end of II Thessalonians Paul concludes, "But as for you brethren do not grow weary of doing good." He has taken two books to paint the picture of walking in sanctification and remembering the glorious picture of what Jesus Christ has done. He has dealt with lazy people who do not work. These people have felt the social pressure from following Christ. Not the trendy thing to do. Paul modeled to them by taking on the bi-vocational ministry. For some reason this ending fits.
Maybe all of this made sense to me, because I constant wonder if I have done enough. If legalism had it's own version of AA, "Hello, my name is Peter and I have been a legalist..." The Thessalonians had areas going for them, but they needed that coach or parent to redirect them. In this moment of my life at DC, the power of those words meant more to me than any other time. "Don't be weary in well doing..."
1st and 2nd Thessalonians end with "May the God of peace sanctify you..." So with a personality that thrives on up tightness and constantly moving, I especially need to be brought back to the fact that Jesus Christ peacefully changes us as we walk with Him. He at times halts our lives to re-focus and re-direct. Our lives hustle and bustle without taking the time to look at how we have changed, but also the gentle work of Christ in our lives. I have a feeling my affinity to this book will not end soon, but take a look who knows what you will see...
