Tension and Release

In music we talk a lot about tension and release. What makes harmonic consonance so sweet – dissonance. What makes rhythmic order energizing – tempo rubato. Why does the tonic chord in a progression feel right – the dominant chord preceding it. Without tension and release power ballads would never have risen to greatness in 80’s hair bands. Listen to the prelude to Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, Duke Ellington’s Mood Indigo or Pink Floyd’s Hey You. The masters know how to push tension to the perfect place. Too far and you drive away the listener. Not far enough and you rob the listener of the pay off.

Life is tension and release. We most appreciate the things for which we have worked the hardest. We celebrate joy more deeply because we have felt pain. Many times our deepest growth in relationship with Christ comes from crying out to God when we’ve been humbled. God’s sovereignty ultimately controls the tension and release in our lives. The Master knows our breaking point. He is profoundly attuned to what the release will bring to our life. Trusting God’s sovereignty is not always easy, but whether we like it or not God is in control. Ecclesiastes 7:13-14 says, “Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked? In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him” I want to know and control what’s coming next so I can stop any unwanted occurrences. In music predictability can kill the release. God in His wisdom hides the future, freeing us to live by faith. When we are in the center of pain, our faith in Christ strengthens us. Don’t confuse faith with emotion. Satan uses emotion to convince us that God has abandoned us or doesn’t love us, but in the midst of these lies, faith screams out, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Deuteronomy 31:6) Faith does not release us when we are through the tension. God holds on to us and walks us into the sweetest part of the song. He takes the excruciating circumstances that Satan wants wasted and instead uses them to help you minister to others in pain. In Galatians 5:5-6 it says, “But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” It is in expressing love for others that a Christ-follower turns heartache into happiness; grief into purpose.

The wisdom of God never ceases to amaze me. He could have made salvation erase all pain, heartache and struggles on this earth. Instead He uses the tensions in our life to focus our relationship with Him releasing us into the joy that comes from loving others. We serve a masterful Composer.

–Pastor Dennis

Mud Pit Belly Flop

My return from the annual event of the year has sparked much deep reflection and contemplation recently. The Redneck Olympics proved to be a complete success yet once again. As always, “Elbow” and “Freight Train” were leading the way by carrying the torch and lighting the ceremonial BBQ grill to begin the festivities. (I tell you, I tear up every time I see it.) Toilet seat horseshoes is surely not the crowning event, but it does have a way of bringing out the best to get the competition started. No doubt, a new day with new heroes emerges as Melvin, 4-time reigning pig’s feet bobbin champion, was soundly defeated for the second year in a row. (Time takes its toll on us all and moves on, does it not?) And just when one might think “yain’t gittin no gooder’n dis”, the apex of the summer arrives with the Mud Pit belly flop. That’s right folks, pure human lard colliding with that specially engineered red clay filled waterin’ hole. Wow…how does so much competition remain hidden in East Dublin? Next year I must insist that my wife go with me.

We celebrate some crazy things in life, don’t we? And we fail to celebrate some really important things as well. Celebration comes in many different forms, as I believe I have adequately proven from an extreme perspective. Often it’s simply that which we get most excited about or spend most of our energy and time participating in. Celebration is important because it most fully reflects that which is important to us, which we love or are passionate about. I love big and little celebrations; anniversaries, birthdays, friendship, good hits in pony league baseball, great drawings at the kitchen table, church family…the list could go on and on.

The Elders at LifePoint have recently been discussing the importance of celebration in our community because we recognize that it reflects our values and priorities. This October, LifePoint will celebrate its 3rd anniversary. What an incredible journey the last 3+ years have been…filled with incredible stories to celebrate of God’s grace, goodness, power and mission. The greatest way for LifePoint to celebrate all that God has done is the ‘re-investment’ of his blessing upon us into people’s lives and the life of our community of Christ-followers, returning his glory to Him. With a greater magnitude than compounding interest, “re-invested celebration” builds upon the faithfulness of God and launches into the promise of God to create a momentum and traction for a church to increase its capacity for impact with the Gospel in its culture.

As we prepare for the Fall season we are making significant shifts in leadership and ministry structure. As well, we are preparing to see significant steps in vision and mission accomplishment; from church planting to serving in Jesus’ name to future site development. I challenge you to prepare and join LifePoint. Take that ‘next step’ of participation with us. Get connected in a Community Group. Volunteer to serve on a Servant Team or in a Servant Project. Plan to engage people through a missional Impact. Celebrate all that God is growing in your life by ‘re-investing’ in the LifePoint community that is working to make a life-changing impact in the culture and world!

Disclaimer: The events described above in the first paragraph seem to be actual. However, in my defense I only saw them online…not in person. I know…you are relieved that your worst nightmares about your Pastor are not true. Rest well, they are not…for the most part.

–Pastor Lane

Warning–Exposure to the Son May Prevent Burning

Church sign messages – we’ve all driven by these thought provoking nuggets of literary genius. They cut deeply into our very souls with the sharp instruments of puns and word play. I’m sure you’ve seen the cars pulled off the road and people repenting of their sinful ways at the base of these beacons of theology. My sarcasm may be lost on this written page. There are not many things that irritate me more than church sign messages. You can ask my wife, Sue. She knows if we pass one, the next 15 minutes of drive time will be filled with my rants. She now despises these signs because they cut into our quality “together” time.

I realize this is a personal issue that I need to work through in therapy and alone time, but it brings to mind a question, “How do you present God to those around you?” God has given us the opportunity to be a part of His master plan. He uses us to spread His Gospel and show His love to others. This is not something to be taken lightly. The Gospel of Christ is the most powerful, life altering message on this planet. The message is not the issue. The problem lies in the method. We live in a culture overrun by information. In the Ozarks we are saturated with “religion”. One of the things I fear is that in spending so much time with other Christ-followers that we begin to operate with a “church sign” mentality – speaking in religious clichés and living completely out of touch with the real world. People can smell the ‘limburger’ a mile away. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying give up Godly relationships and begin living in sin so we fit in with the world. I’m saying peel away the layers of false religious perfection and be real. It’s easy to assume that the only way we can help someone who needs Christ is for them to see us as having it all together. What they need to see is what Christ can do with a messed up life. I’ll be honest, I constantly struggle with this. I’m a minister. Shouldn’t people see me as a perfect example of godliness? Don’t people expect me to speak in King James English and advanced churchese? People shouldn’t know about my struggles. I can’t be seen hanging out in ‘those’ places with ‘those’ people. I work in an unusual microcosm of amazing people who love Christ. My coworkers are all Christians. I spend most of my time with Christians. I’m certainly not complaining. I’m extremely blessed, but I am more and more convicted about getting myself out among those who need Christ. I must make a conscious effort to make relationships with people outside of the church circle. They need to see me as a normal guy who has a supernatural God, not a supernatural guy with a normal god.

Church signs irritate me so much for this simple reason – they are put out under the guise of impacting the lost for Christ when, in reality, they are used for the amusement of other Christians. Take some time this week to examine how you live in this culture. Are you more concerned about keeping up appearances for Christians or leading a lost world to Christ? Listen to these powerful words from a church sign near you, “God loves everyone, but prefers fruits of the spirit over religious nuts!”

–Pastor Dennis

Ice Road Truckers

I’m strangely drawn to reality shows in which people’s lives are put into extreme jeopardy. I’m not sure what that says about me. I guess I feel if you are going to receive fame and fortune for having a camera follow you around, you should at least have to risk your own life. So until Paris Hilton jumps over train on a 4 wheeler while performing a perfect back flip, The Simple Life will not be on my DVR recording schedule. However, Ice Road Truckers is a “do not miss”. These guys are nuts. I feel like I’m more of a man just having sat down with my bag of Doritos and Diet Coke and watched these guys do something nobody else is crazy enough to do – haul enormous loads, hundreds of miles across a frozen lake at the arctic circle in negative 60 degree weather. They don’t use chains. The ice road cracks and moves under the weight of these fully loaded semis. The drivers go days without sleep. If they hit a weak patch their life is over. In seconds the ice freezes back over the hole in which they just descended, sealing them in a frozen sarcophagus. Why would anyone take that kind of risk? I believe they have an innate desire to push themselves beyond their breaking point. They feel the only way to know where the end of their rope is, is to go beyond it. What others see as risking life they see as living it.

When was the last time you really lived your life in Christ. I mean living beyond your own abilities, being uncomfortable. Think about this. If you weren’t a Christ follower would your life look any different than it does now? Look honestly. Go beyond moral decisions, past the things you avoid because as a Christ-follower you’re not “allowed” to do them. I’m talking about living your life in Christ instead of living it in you. The world is full of Christians doing just enough to get by. Where in the New Testament does God call us to mediocrity? Many are looking for what they can get from God not what they can give. We live in the day of the “self-help” TV evangelist. Their books line the shelves of Christian book stores everywhere. They sing the siren call of “be a better you”. Quite frankly I don’t want the world to see a better me, I want the world to see Christ lived out in me. There is a big difference. Why are we looking for improvement when what we need is transformation? Spend some time in the Word studying how Christ lived on this earth. How did the Apostles live? This is how we are to live. Forget about the miserable cold. We aren’t called to comfort. Throw out the fear of a massive ice break. Live by faith. Work through the sleep deprivation. Our time on this earth is short. Driving a fully loaded truck across a frozen lake at negative 60 is a choice. It requires action. Put down the Doritos and Diet Coke. At the end of our rope is God’s hand pulling us to something much greater!

–Pastor Dennis

Maiden Voyage

I bought a canoe recently. It’s a sweet float. I’ve been researching and considering them for several months now and as I’ve considered the kind of boat I wanted, I tried to make sure it would provide all the things I wanted and needed in a boat. Most of all, it had to be a boat with a solid rationale that was good for the family so I could use that to convince my wife. Done. The day after I got home with it was the “maiden voyage”; that first float trip to confirm all my hard work. It was no disappointment. I managed to paddle about a mile up river, through a couple of smaller rapids and then turn the stern to head home. Overall the trip was a huge success as more water stayed on the outside of the boat than the inside.

Maiden voyages can be a scary venture. (Not that I want to make too much of my first canoe trip.) Most people remember the Titanic when they think of maiden voyage catastrophies. I was thinking more of the Swedish warship Vasa, which sank after only one mile into her maiden voyage. For now, I’m thinking more about this article that I am writing for the LifePoint Journal, our new blog. Honestly, I’ve avoided this as long as possible for several reasons. First, the name “blog”. I just don’t get it. Second, anytime I just start writing/talking about random subjects and expressing my humble opinion, I usually end up offending someone (albeit unintentionally) with my ‘mildly strong’ opinion. Third, I love humor and have learned to use it to enjoy life, deal with life and sometimes to simply survive. That said…I look for humor in everything. That said…not everyone agrees. Again, I find myself in trouble because someone didn’t like my humor. Fourth, and final, I’ve gotten used to being in trouble and it doesn’t bother me nearly as much as it used to.

I do hope that you will be encouraged through these journal entries. I’m sure they will give us a great opportunity to dialogue about life. As always, there will be an abundance of “Lane-guistics” to keep you guessing.

–Pastor Lane