Olive Crest United Methodist Church
7180 North 60th Street
Omaha, Nebraska 68152

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Rev. Debra Tompsett-Welch

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The Spiritual Life

March-April 1999

Getting Ready for Easter on Purpose!

By Rev. Michael Lee Burgess

I have been thinking during these last three months while the newsletter was held up about all the windows God has opened to me. Windows that give me a glimpse of the joy filled life lived in the peaceful center of love. Life lived in God. While I haven't been able to stay in that center very long, those flashes of insight make it worth the effort of trying to get closer. Let me share some of what God has shared with me, and maybe in doing so, it will help me to understand them better and perhaps illuminate your life also.

1) What we put in our mind makes up our life

My brother Mark came out to visit and help with fixing up mom and dad's old house so they can sell it. During the short time he was here we got to talking about the way he lived and managed to keep going, to do good in the midst of a very complicated and busy life. (He has more energy than any three people I know, Mom calls him the buzz bomb 'cause he buzzes around so much). Also remember, this is my little brother I am talking to. The one that used to drink a bit too much when he was younger and sometimes did dumb things (like borrow my car and outrun the cops by driving across a corn field to avoid a speeding ticket). I am looking at him and I am amazed. I see a very adult and intense man who is trying to make the world a better place, living out his calling from God as a disciple. A calling he is practicing while working at Pizza Hut and as a bouncer in a neighborhood pub. He told me, "What you put into your mind, its what you become." "I want to grow". "What you watch, it gets in your mind and becomes part of you." He has a Play Station, but he won't play the shoot em up games, because he doesn't need that violence, he sees enough of that in real life. "I choose my recreation" he told me. He lives his life on purpose. He works very long hours, but still has time to help everyone he comes into contact with. They enjoy him so much at his work that they advertised on the local radio station to come help celebrate his 40th birthday. That only happens to people who touch other peoples lives, in an intentional way.

To celebrate Christmas, Mark and his friend George found a very poor single mom in their neighborhood and got her and her two kids Christmas presents and spent Christmas with them. He sees that we have a choice on how we live, and all the small decisions we make, make a big difference when you are trying to craft your life into something beautiful. A life that is beautifully independent of what the world around you does to you.

Gosh, he turned out good. Can I also do that with my own life? Of course, all it takes is the willingness to choose what I do, what I play with, and how I am going to live. We all have that much power and that much freedom. If Mark can do such great things with his life, you and I can too. We just need to decide to choose, instead of letting life and other people choose for us. As the bumper sticker says when making a decision, "What Would Jesus Do?"

2) To try to do the right thing, even when we know we will hurt, is an act of loving courage.

To grow, to become more than we are, we have to admit our failings. To put that in church language, we confess our sins so that we can be forgiven and grow from them. I was at a retreat that the Omaha District put together for all our Pastors. It was to see if we could create more community and mutual support among the brothers and sisters. My District Superintendent Ron Croom was trying to get us to break down some of our walls of distrust. Our retreat leader was trying to show us how, by being vulnerable to each other, admitting our weaknesses and asking for help, we would be much stronger than pretending that we had it all together and looking good. I thought he had a Christ Like Point, so I tried to put the idea into action, to give some flesh to the dream.

We had a little exercise where we divided into groups and basically played rock, paper, scissors with the other groups. If we all agreed we could all get points, but if we out thought the other groups we could get more points for our group and the others would lose points. I believed that the way the instructions were worded, we were supposed to be competitive, so argued against trying to go for the group win the first round, though I changed my mind and tried to help out the group that was in last place later (I felt sorry for them and wanted to help them out because we where winning). After we were done with the exercise, one of the pastors pointed out that if we had all cooperated, our individual scores would have been higher than they were from being competitive. I realized I had been wrong and I told the entire group that I was partially responsible for our group being competitive, instead of cooperative and that it was a mistake. That I had a blind spot I needed to examine and learn to see around of competitiveness. One of the pastors across the room from me said, "Well Duh". That was a put down and I was hurt and offended. I felt like I wanted to take no more risks, and admit to no more mistakes. Being vulnerable was not making me stronger, it was only making it easier for me to be hurt.

Then I stopped and realized that I had already grown more than I would ever had if I had been playing it safe. I now know that I can have blind spots and need to check to see if what I believe is happening is real, or just what I think. Taking risks and admitting weakness was already working to grow me and open up more of me to God. And I have always known that God can do more through me if I grow, rather than if I stay safe behind my defenses.

I remembered the time at church camp when God told me to be friendly to people, even if they could hurt my feelings and take advantage of me. God asked me to be friendly and reach out to them, not because it was fun, but because in love, my God was asking me to. (No it was not a voice with words out of a burning bush, but I got the idea.) A month later I made a friend. My first best friend. I had never had one before, and I was in high school. Doing what God wanted, lead me into a new world and a new way of living in the world that made my life so much richer. I think that being vulnerable and asking for and giving help is something like that life change I experienced in church camp. But I can see that sometimes I am going to hurt, and there will be people who forget to be kind. There will be people who will take advantage of my vulnerability to try and get a "win" over me or put me down. But do I want to grow into the person God sees me to be, or don't I?

With your help I will ask for help and offer my own. Let us together decide to live intentionally as the people God sees us to be. Next month I will share some more windows. In-between then and now, I will listen to you. May God illuminate both of us.

Your brother-in-Christ, Reverend Michael Lee Burgess

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