#UMC Delegates and Olympic Athletes

There is a level of health that is required to be an athlete at the Olympics. Events are different and each event requires, at times, a different skill set. While weight lifters and swimmers both qualify for the Olympics, you don't assign the weight lifter to swim the 100 backstroke or ask the swimmer to lift weights over her head. It is obvious. While one qualifies to the Olympics, each skill set for the events are different. 

The UMC meets every four years, and much like the Olympics, there are many people who qualify to attend. It is worth asking, what are the skill sets that may be needed for an individual attending the General Conference?

Depending upon your specific role at the GC, you may need a different set of skills. Bishops need to be good at facilitation. Various observers need to be good researchers. Delegates need to be thoughtful. And, similar to the Olympics, there are things that are universal to all participants. In the Olympics, physical fitness may be a universal skill to be an Olympic athlete. In the GC, spiritual fitness seems to be a universal skill. 

If you are ever in a position to vote for delegates to the GC, I would submit that the primary requirement be one of spiritual fitness. Asking questions like: Is this person patient? Is this person kind? Is this person self aware and can they self reflect? Can this person self differentiate between issues and personal attacks and not see them as one in the same? Can this person keep their 'snark' in check? Can this person listen with their heart?

Just like the physically fit are most successful at the Olympics likewise, the people who are the most helpful and insightful at this GC are people who are spiritually fit. 

Why your pastor should love complaints

There are 150 Psalms in the Christian Bible and roughly 1/3 of them are laments. Laments are structured ways to complain against God and as Rev. Estee Valendy noted in her sermon, interwoven in the lament are expressions of faith and hope. 

Humans love to complain but hate to hear them. Irony at it's finest. But the reality is, your pastor should love complaints. Complaints are ways for people to deal with their feelings and emotions. It is natural and healthy to share these feelings, remember 1/3 of the Psalms in the Bible are complaints. However, our culture does not like those who complain. So what are we to do with these feelings? Most of the time we push them down and do not allow them to surface except when we rehearse the script of what we want to say while we are driving. We do not have a healthy place to confront these feelings and complaints and they begin to fester in us only to manifest in other ways, such as road rage. 

The fact of the matter is part of the reason pastors should love complaints is that there is one place left where complaints are accepted and heard - the Church. The promise of the Church is that when you come to complain, the Church will not leave you or cast you aside. The Church of Christ hears your cry and will not take it personally, but will have the courage to sit with you even as you cast stones at her. 

Pastors should love hearing complaints because it means that people are finding ways to address their feelings in mature and healthy ways. And ultimately that is role of the pastor, to help people move toward maturity in Christ.

So I remind you that if you have complaints, don't push them down. Perhaps write them down, but do not fear your complaints. And if you are afraid of your complaints, then share them with your pastor. We are here to stand by you so you are not alone. 

I have toxins that a celery/prune juice cleanse cannot purge

In our culture's endless pursuit of immortality and illusion of control over the things of our world I have experienced a detox cleanse. For one week I attempted the Master Cleanse. It was okay. I am not adverse to these sorts of cleanses, but I have to admit that I have toxins that even the Master Cleanse cannot purge. 

We all have toxins that cannot be purged through a bodily cleanse. I know that we all are convinced that if it is not material than it is not "real". The grip of Aristotle's understanding of forms married with materialism and the supremacy of the scientific world, we are willing to talk about and even entertain a cleanse of our material body but resist (or discount as less important or less "real") a cleanse of our Spirit. Again, I confess that I have toxins that require a different detox. 

Enter the spiritual disciplines. 

I have the toxin of anger. I have the toxin of envy and pride. I have the toxin of lust and the toxin of idolatry. I have the toxin of violence. And no amount of lemon juice can detox my Spirit. 

Buy organic, great. Drink celery and prune juice, awesome. Workout and sweat our the toxins, super. But let us not fall into the trap that the way to the healthy life is just to be free from bodily injury and illness. Cancer can form on areas that cannot be measured on the PET scan. Our hearts can be beating normally but be hard as stone. Our vision can be 20/20 and still be blind. Our teeth may be perfectly clean and inline but our tongue can be full of venom. We may be slim but carry crushing weight. We may able to hold complex yoga poses but still remain inflexible. The healthy life is more than the body.

We all have toxins that a celery/prune juice cleanse cannot purge.

“For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.”

— Jesus in Luke 12:23