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Lessons of a Loser
I’m a huge loser. I’ve lost huge amounts of stuff, and I’m not talking about stuff like car
keys or socks (always just one per pair) in the dryer. I’m not whining or looking for
sympathy, I’m just setting the scene so you have some context for what I’ll share about
some of the lessons I learned through the losses I experienced. I’m not the only loser
around. Everyone’s lost something – a parent, a childhood, a friendship, a mind. What was
I saying? Oh yeah, I hope that something among these simple thoughts will help you in
some way as you process your own losses. Read more...

Making Adjustments
You can’t really plan for the unexpected, since by definition, you don’t expect it. We make
our plans, try to live as responsibly as we can, and trust God to do what he does.
Nevertheless, stuff happens in our fallen world inside and around our flawed selves that we
couldn’t have predicted. There’s the matter of the free-will experiment in which we’re
engaged (where we’re permitted to hurt ourselves and one another if we choose to). And
then there’s the factor of the clear and present danger of the dark spiritual world,
relentless in its hate for us and the God who loves us. We make plans, some of which are
thwarted, others were foolish and were thus doomed from the start. Regardless of the
cause, we have to learn to make adjustments on the fly. Life isn’t nearly as predictable as
we would wish, so detours are a more regular occurrence than we planned when we
embarked on the trip. So we have to learn to expect the unexpected, bring our fears about
them to God and adapt to what happens. Read more...

Treating Timidity
Not to be harsh, but it’s my observation that a disproportionate percentage of American
believers in Jesus are timid in the expression of their faith. There are "don't-dare-miss-it"
people and then there are “don't-dare-try-it" ones. I think Christians should be more
courageous, not only out in the big bad world, but even among themselves in their
comfortable churches. Jesus has too many frail followers here – afraid to take any risks or
do anything for the first time. There’s something about our middle class suburban
spirituality that lulls us toward a tentative, rather than a forward form of faith. Read more...

How God Guides
… he will be our guide even to the end. Psalm 48:14
Along with what I’ve found in the Bible about how God guides, I’m going to share a lot of
my own stories. This topic isn’t theoretical for me. I’ve been trying to follow his lead since I
met him on August 20, 1972. I’ve seen the Lord do some very cool things as I’ve tried to
hear his voice and have made tons of mistakes in the process. It’s been quite a wild ride,
and I’ll share what I’ve learned along the way. I hope that my stories are an
encouragement to you (both my successes and failures). I’m not implying that my
experiences are necessarily a precedent for anyone else. You’ll have your own stories,
some of which you might not have thought about as “divine guidance.”

God's Passionate Pursuit of People
Some things have been changing in my thinking about God. For instance, I’m noticing his presence
and influence in more places than I used to. I’m used to seeing him in the Bible, in other people
(mostly Christians), in my experiences in the Spirit, in the Church, in sunsets, and such places. But
I'm starting to think he plants ideas about himself in more fields than I had previously thought. I’m
also becoming more aware of his passionate pursuit of people through those ideas that he’s sowing
throughout the world. I just don’t believe that God is sitting on his hands, waiting for people to come
to him or for volunteers for his sales team! I’m pretty sure that he’s already at work in every heart in
every place before anyone ever goes there to tell them about Jesus. Yeah, he’s patient but I don’t
think he’s at all passive. God is the ultimate missionary. He’s more obsessed about bringing his
children back home than we are in trying to convince them to do so; and he does something about
his obsession. Read more...

The Day I Got My Whatever Back
The core issue of my lost “whatever” was really a loss of trust. I simply didn’t trust God like I had
before. He’d let me down (at least from my vantage point at the time) and I wasn’t willing to expose
myself unreservedly to him again. “Whatever you want, Lord” was not going to proceed out of my
mouth again until at least we got some things straightened out between us. Read more…

Loving An Unpredictable God
Over Chinese food my friend Joe asked me if my faith in God was in tact. I was getting divorced,
broke my neck, and was just diagnosed with cancer. He was concerned for me and wanted to know
how to best be a support to me in my dark night of the soul. I’d loved Jesus for nearly forty years
and had no intention of breaking up with him now. But I told him that though I didn’t question God’s
character, I wondered if he had very “good judgment.” I’d been Joe’s friend and pastor for many
years, and he wasn’t used to hearing me talk quite that way, but since he asked, I thought it best to
answer honestly. With flushed face he promised to pray for me, which I obviously needed and
gratefully welcomed. That horrific season of my life did alter a lot of my thinking about God – and as
far as I can tell – for the better. You can be the judge of that yourself if you decide to read on.

Yet a few more “uncut” (though slightly “uncouth”) chapters from the
Memoirs…
Some for fun, others not fun at all…

Alcoholics Know How To Pray

A few months into my hell of mercy, I ran across the prayer often used by Alcoholics

Anonymous

groups. The first “stanza” is the most familiar, but I’ve found the entire prayer,

originally written by

Dr. Rheinhold Niebuhr, to be super helpful to me. I memorized it and have

prayed it over and over. I

may not be an alcoholic, but I sure am a recovering sinner.

Don’t Turn Out the Lights!

Have you ever tried to sleep in the hospital? You’re in pain already and people keep coming in

and

out of your room all night long waking you up to see how you’re doing! If you have a

roommate

who's also in pain, his moans and groans are not exactly the sleep-aid you were

looking for. Then

there’s the noise in the hall, you’re not at home in your own bed, you have an

IV pole that you have

to drag to the bathroom. It all combines to make sleep problematic to be

sure.

“Jobian”

If you know me, you know that I like words. I like ones that you can find in the dictionary, and I

like to

make up some of my own when there just doesn’t seem to be one that adequately

expresses the

point I’m trying to make. I call these words, “Wigetisms.” “Jobian” is one such

Wigetism. Here’s how

it came about.

Divorce is Hell

I heard about a group of divorced people that meets weekly for emotional support. As much as I

absolutely hate being part of the land of the divorced, I began attending the meetings, hoping

for

some healing in my broken heart.

THREE CHAPTERS ON THE KINGDOM OF GOD

Road Work (Part 1) – Here Comes the King…

This follows, “The Kingdom of God: Foretaste to Fulfillment,” and speaks of the valleys that

need to

be filled, the mountains to be leveled, the crooked places to be straightened, and the

rough patches

to be smoothed for Jesus to have his kingly way in us and through us.

Road Work (Part 2) – Earth Movers…

If we’re going to fill valleys, cut down mountains, straighten crooked places and smooth out

rough

places in our culture; we’re going to have to use the biggest and the best of what God

supplies.

Spiritually speaking we have access to graders, bulldozers, backhoes, excavators,

pavers, etc. If we

want to be world changers, we’ll have to use some big “earth movers”!

THE KINGDOM OF GOD - Foretaste to Fulfillment

(A Brief Summary of the Bible's Teaching Concerning the Kingdom of God)

LEARNING LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM 2 CORINTHIANS
Why 2 Corinthians?
To put it bluntly, 2 Corinthians saved my ministry. I’ve always said that there are two kinds of
spiritual leaders: Aspiring and Perspiring ones, and in the mid-1990’s I was one of the Perspiring
ones! There are some people who want to be leaders, and then there are some, who at times,
wonder why they ever became leaders in the first place! I was in one of those dark-night-of-the-
pastor’s-soul seasons (I’ve had several of these over the years) when the Lord led me to take 2
Corinthians as a kind of prescription for what ailed me. I had planted three churches and was
leading two of them at the same time (don’t ask me about the sanity of this!) I was in the throes of
dealing with a bunch of my own inadequacies, some significant disappointments that I had with the
churches, and a whole bag-full of hurt feelings. Not only did I feel like a failure, I couldn’t seem to get
either God or people to do what I wanted them to do. I went away for a few days to seek the Lord
and try to get my head together. I was pretty bummed out about how things were going, when I
found myself reading this letter over and over. I began to feel as though I was attending a leadership
class taught by Paul himself. While I’ll never be the leader he was, from his letter and his example,
I've gleaned (and continue to do so) many valuable lessons about spiritual leadership. Read more...

AUDIO MEMOIRS
The writing I was doing on my mountain retreat was a memoir from the last two years of my life. I
thought I’d put some of the chapters here in audio form. Sometime in the near future I’ll have the
whole memoir available in writing. Hope you enjoy…
· Diminutive Angels
· Body Guards at the Funeral
· Losers Make the Best Dancers
· The Neck Brace, Good Seats, and the Chick Magnet
· The Other Use for a Gator Aid Bottle
· The Pink Darth Vader Mask
· Unhooking from the Bumper – About Forgiveness

WHY I’M STILL FOLLOWING JESUS
(An Encouragement to Endure)
Quite a few people have expressed to me their surprise, that I’m still following Jesus after losing my
marriage, my ministry, and my health. I’m just as surprised as they are that they are so surprised! It’s
almost like they expect me to give up on the Lord because he hasn’t given me what I want. Yeah, I’m
way grieved about my circumstances, pretty scared, and have had my moments of being ticked off
with him, but to stop following Jesus would be the height of stupidity. He’s my only constant. I have
no other hub around which to revolve. I may have very little idea about what he’s doing, and why he
allows what he does, but I know he’s with me and loves me extravagantly. Why in the world would I
leave the only purpose of my life now? I’m still following Jesus because he’s real and he’s still real
important to me. Read more...

FOUNDATIONS 201
This a follow-up to "Foundations 101." In 101 we introduced six topics necessary for new Jesus
followers to study and understand in order to be strong in their faith. These same themes will now
be discussed here on a bit more advanced level for those who have been born again for a while.

1. THE CROSS - (on being forgiven by God)
2. THE INNER-CHANGE - (on being changed by Jesus)
3. THE INTERACTION - (on having conversations with God)
4. THE CHURCH - (on having fellowship with other believers)
5. THE SPIRIT - (on being empowered to reach out to others)
6. THE WORD - (on being a student of the Bible)
7. THE KINGDOM OF GOD - Foretaste to Fulfillment

In 101 you learned how to get started as a Christian; in 201 you'll learn how to keep going. The
approach taken here is still very much foundational and fundamental, but on a somewhat more
mature and challenging level. Read more…

Here are a few more “uncut” chapters from my Memoirs. Mostly for fun…
Dad, we gotta get us some tattoos!
The Grand Canyon, isn’t that in California?
Recovering from “Preacher Talk”…

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