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

Our Pastor

Rev. Debra Tompsett-Welch

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The Spiritual Life

September-October 2004

Getting a Jumpstart from God, again

By Rev. Michael Lee Burgess

First: Read the Article on Why Vote by Angela Kroeger.

Second: Read the Article on Friendship by Katherine Barnett.

Sometimes God comes along and picks me up in the strangest ways when I trip and fall down again. The church and I have some money troubles, just like everyone one else. I am studying how to do worship in very different ways; so that when we start up our new worship services for young families that don't get excited by the one we have now I will be ready. It is stressful to learn new ways to do God talk and be authentic. We are working on the Elkhorn house, (lots of progress, we are close) but I tore some muscles in my back helping the movers get the hospital beds over to Turtle Manor. I was getting over being bitten or stung by something venomous 15 times, (skin is growing back) and a side effect cold.

I was feeling stressed, not sleeping and when I get really tired I often feel incompetent so I was not thinking very clearly or optimistically. My mind was not centered; I was not living in the mind of Christ, except strangely enough on Sunday. Then God kind of moved in and my energy spiked. I could feel the joy and hope again flowing through me, but the crash afterwards was kind of grim. Then God gave me an experience that helped me put everything into perspective again, and move back toward my center where God dwells. I'm not sure God will use exactly this experience with you, but God has a way of taking ordinary things and using them like a lever to change the world; just like Jesus did in his parables. So who knows?

I had been thinking about the future and trying to envision ways our church family could grow and find more joy making the world a better place; and I was getting bogged down. Everything seemed so complicated. How do we get the money for new adventures in faith? Where do we find the talent and the people to do new things? We have fabulous people working hard, but we need new people for some of these projects. I was painting myself into a corner with negative thinking about the mountains to get over then God pushed me.

I had started occasionally playing an on line computer game my dad found called Earth and Beyond. Then Sheldon and Josh started playing, got excited, and got me to join a guild. A guild is a group of people who help each other advance in the game. It is kind of like a mutual support group to help you play the game and do what you can't do on your own. I noticed that after I got talked into joining, just cause they pushed, that these people were very friendly. Every time you logged on the leaders and most of the people said "hi" to you and that felt good. After they helped me out a few times with projects I started caring about them and listening to their lives and giving advice. I noticed that some of these dynamics looked a lot like dynamics of a church. When you are welcomed, cared about, helped out with problems, listened to; then you start to feel loyalty. I spent hours mining asteroids for people in the game to help them with their projects without getting paid for it, just because it was what my character did well, and it was a way I could help the guild out. I like helping and doing it well is its own reward. I really didn't need lots of play money in the game; there was always someone who would help me get things I needed.

Then Electronic Arts, the company that owned the game decided to shut it down and put their resources into something that made them more money. The people in the guild went into shock. They were experiencing real grief, some of their friendship were two years old. The computer server went from thousands of people on at one time to a few hundred in a few weeks as people left the game. But the people in this guild kept playing. They knew the game was going to be canceled in a month, but they still played. It was kind of like the movie "When Worlds Collide," where the hero used a twenty-dollar bill to light a cigarette because money just didn't mean much any more when the world is going to be destroyed. People got more generous trying to help the younger characters achieve their goals before the game was canceled.

I started thinking about the dynamic of what was going on. Here was the definition of a fatal illness for these gamers, but they pulled together and got closer. The game actually got more fun. We knew we could not do everything anymore, there was not enough time, but we could do what we did well. Then it got down to the last days and things were really sad and grim. There were people talking of leaving before the end just because it was so sad and frustrating, so anti-climatic. We got together for one last guild meeting when all of a sudden some of the developers, the programmers who had been writing this game for at least three years, came on. They had gotten off work, gone home, turned on their home computers, used their system administrator passwords to get into the game, and started giving away the most rare and sought after pieces of equipment in the game. It turned into a rabbit hunt as people went crazy trying to find where the developers had hidden the toys as the programmers gave hints. Then it was like Christmas morning opening presents. These programmers didn't have to do this, they just wanted to, but the mood of that last night party was suddenly jubilant. There was no way we could have known they would do this and no way to have made them do it, but here it was. Even though I only knew them for a few weeks I think I will miss Draco, Janeway, DJ, Grosfactory, Sib, Fredfarmer, Willow, Kreng and all the rest.

I sat back in my chair staring at the blank computer screen and I started wondering what God might have been trying to teach me during this. First hard times are not always bad. Sometimes they are what help you focus and realize what is truly important. Then your life can have more joy in it, not less. Second; you don't know what is going to happen next. Sometimes endings are a party and worth the pain involved getting there. Help comes when you least expect it, and there are very good people in the world even if you don't see them on television. Third; never, ever give up. There are always things to try and sometimes it means changing directions, but never give up. Even the people at that last gathering of the guild were seeing some good things out of losing this game they truly enjoyed. One young man who I had spent some time chatting with (Chatting is when you type messages to each other) felt that God had finally pushed him hard enough that he knew what he wanted to do with his life. He was going to make movies. He said it had been years since he had felt hope, but now he felt God's presence. I don't know if he heard God clearly about the movies, but I'm going to be watching for films made with his name on them.

So what does that mean to us in the family of God at Olive Crest United Methodist Church? I think some of the lessons about how human beings work are the same everywhere. We need to welcome each other and anyone who walks in the door. Saying "Hi" and "Welcome back" makes a huge difference over time. Help each other figure out what to do next when we get stuck and we will find ourselves able to overcome problems that no one can do alone. Then we will all be better off, those who helped as well as those who can now deal with their own problems. Finally, never ever give up. We have both some hard times ahead and also we are on the threshold of new grand adventures and God has a bright future for us. There will be joy in it, as well as hard times, and sometimes they will both come at the same time, but as one of the people on the guild said, "Its all good".

Family of God, thank you for being who you are. May God continue to inspire, strengthen and guide us all into joy, even in the midst of hard times.

Your brother-in-Christ,
Reverend Michael Lee Burgess

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