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

August 2000

"Riding the Wave" or trying to do it God's way.

By Rev. Michael Lee Burgess

Helmuth von Moltke: "No plan survives first contact with the enemy."

Robert Burns: "The best schemes O' mice an' men/ gang aft agley..."

God seems to be trying to teach me a lesson lately. Something about change and flexibility. And since I keep having to learn it over and over, it must be important, so I thought I would share it with you. The first example that leaps out of my memory was the Lock -In we had for our Youth Group a month or so ago. I had a lesson all worked out for the movie "The Phenomena". Then the kids decided that they absolutely had to watch a scary movie. So I scrambled about and found one that had some basis in history or culture so that it might have just a little in common with reality (and that was not easy to find). It was also hard to let go of the work I had put into Phenomena. I wanted to use my lesson plan, not come up with another one. But do I teach for me or am I trying to provide an experience that the young folks might use to examine their relationship to God and their understanding of the faith? Is this for me or for them? So I found a remake of a classic book about the headless horseman called "Sleepy Hollow". It stayed under my "yuck" factor but was scary enough for them. I found scriptures to relate it to (frantically looking) and ethical questions to ask, and situations to question and beliefs for them to challenge (what does evil really look like in comparison to what you saw?) and how do you tell a person is "faith filled" or on God's side? What do their actions tell us about them? And it worked, the kids had fun, and I was happy with the teaching.

But the hardest part was the letting go of all the work I had put in before in preparation. That was a safe place, I was ready and confident, not much risk. But recreating things on the fly was much harder, much riskier. What if it had not worked out? What if I didn't have a lesson worth working with? Do I stay stuck in the safe for small return or take risks for bigger rewards? Or to put it another way, what do I want and what does God want? How much chaos can I stand? Does my wanting safety and predictability keep me from experiencing grace and miracles? Do I leave space in my life for God to help?

The next setting; we are working to get the ground ready for the New Day Care Play Ground equipment. We had to get the old equipment out, including the buried concrete footings. We looked at it and the only possible solution seemed to be renting a "Bob Cat", or skid loader. Mom and Dad's neighbor has a friend who I visited with once who owned one that he rented out for a very reasonable price and ran it too for the same price. The Day Care Board "OK"ed the price and it was all set up. So I tried to get a hold of our neighbor and get his friends name. While he was looking for his friend's phone number, another friend, who does contract work and had a "Bob Cat" sitting in the driveway in front of me, showed up. He said that he and our neighbor would do the job for $150, only $25 more than renting the "Cat". That sounded good to me, I have no need to drag chains around in the dirt. So I called around and got it authorized. That started the plan changing. When they got the "HUGE" concrete pieces out of the ground, we had to figure out how to get rid of them, and we also discovered that the gravel had mixed in the dirt and we needed to take off 6 inches of dirt so that their would be room for the gravel after we assemble the play ground. Now the plan is changing again. Todd then offered us another deal (discounted because we are a church and he honors God). He would get his friend to come by with a dump truck, haul off a load of dirt, and the concrete and the swing set poles and torch the concrete off the slide poles and haul it off (including taking down the fence and pulling out those cemented poles) for another $150. This was obviously a great deal, but we weren't going to do all that part of the plan yet. We were going to put up the equipment, then build a retaining wall, lay crushed rock and then gravel over it for drainage and move the fence out to the sidewalk. But we were going to do that later. After we had the equipment in for a while and had built up some more money. But now that we knew that the gravel was not salvageable, what are we going to do? Stay with the plan or change the plan and go with this unexpected offer? How do you tell when God is trying to help you do hard things? We are trying to be very careful with God's resources. Money must always be spent carefully, but so must backs and arms. We have a lot of people who will work hard and help, but not at digging out 300 lb. lumps of concrete. Not if there is any other way to do it. But it changes everything around and we all haven't had time to talk it over. But this was just after Church Council (how convenient to have some many of them there), and I got on the cell phone and started calling everyone I could reach and we got the ball rolling again. Is this acting without thought, or is it taking advantage of a gift arraigned by God? How do you tell when God is helping you?

When I went to Denver Colorado to go to seminary, the letter had said be there tomorrow, as in the next day (somehow it had been delayed getting to me). I loaded up my car, my roommate Frank Burden got the rest of my stuff up to my parents and I ended up in Denver (is was a bit harder than that, but too long to tell now). They were not ready for me. They didn't have anyplace for me to stay or any financial aid. I was scared and discouraged. But a friend had told me, as I was leaving town, to contact her relatives if I needed a place to stay. I thought nothing of it at the time, but now I searched frantically for the note. I called them up and they said "Come on over" and fed me breakfast in the morning. I navigated my way back to Iliff and they "found" housing for me (how do you lose a dormitory?) and said I had a free ride with grants for my whole seminary career (that didn't turn out to be true for long, they lost a bunch of funding, but it helped that first semester). As I sat there, hearing all this fall into place to make it possible to go to seminary, I thought "Ok God, you don't have to push so hard, I will keep my part of the agreement and I won't run away until I have tried this for a semester". And, of course, it turned out to be what I wanted. How can you tell when God is helping you do something complicated? That time it was obvious even in the moment, other times take reflection and looking back to see what God has done.

But always it takes being willing to change my plans. To keep my mind focused on the goal, instead on what I have already done or agreed to. If I am going to make space for God, then I have to be willing to let God change things. When Jesus said, "Not my will, but thine be done.", in Gethsemene, that was not the first time he had said that. He practiced it in great and small things, including changing good and reasonable plans at the last minute to do something important. Staying flexible like that is very hard work. Committing myself to the goal, without locking my plans in concrete is just hard. But it is also freeing, I don't have to carry all the weight by myself, God carries it too and that helps. I also find that I can't let go very well when I am afraid, or when I think badly of myself. If I am being insecure, or just grumpy at myself, it is much harder to be flexible, let others help, and let God redirect what is going on.

So, for me, the first step to letting miracles into my life, is treating myself as a child of God, and focusing on my good self and not always on my faults. The second is immersing myself in the knowledge that I am loved, seen as worthy of love, and constantly being loved by God. Only then will I have the courage to turn away from my fear and take the risks involved with change and "ride the wave" to a new future, one where God is making "all things new." It is easy to say, I know, and I often fail to do it right, but sins are forgiven, and I can try again, and again, and again. And the more I try and work at it, the more "miracles" I find all around me. Perhaps God has been trying to teach you this flexibility too? If so, let us work together on it. It helps to do it together.

May God continue to bless you and help you grow.

Your brother-in-Christ, Reverend Michael Lee Burgess

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