Raiding Windmills

Warning: This may be my longest post ever, so buckle up and hang in there…

“It is clear that thou art not yet experienced in adventures.” So saying, he [Don Quixote] clapped spurs to Rozinante, without heading the cries by which Sancho Panza warned him that he was going to encounter not Giants but windmills. For he would neither listen to Sancho’s outcries, nor mark what he said, but shouted to the windmills in a loud voice: ‘Fly not, cowards and vile creatures, for it is only one Knight that assaults you!”

As this morning I watched the sun rise over the snow-capped mountain peaks, the words of Glen Phillips (Toad the Wet Sprocket) echo through my mind: “I spend too much time…raiding windmills.” I have been left disarmed and amazed at how grace and mercy have met me here quite unexpectedly this week on the Continental Divide of my heart. On one side is everything I am right now. On the other is everything God is guiding me to be.

This week the threads of conversation, discussion and experience weren’t about how to write better books or market more small group curriculum, but about the Great Metanarrative – the Epic Story of God. The view from 9200 feet of the plateau below, mountains heaving into the sky, valleys falling out of sight, the relentless and raging fury of the Arkansas Whitewater and being well over a mile closer to the billions of stars in the Milky Way were breathtaking reminders that He is and I am not.

And in the midst of being captured by the glory of creation, God answers my prayer longing for his voice…through a caption on a t-shirt.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am not a fan of slogans on t-shirts. In fact, I have an utter disdain for what I call “t-shirt theology.” Grab a catchy phrase, rip off another popular shirts design with a few “Christian” design modifications or pluck a Bible verse out of its original context and you can announce to the world how smug you are in your belief. You don’t need to get to know me as a real person, you don’t need to sit down with me and hear my story, because my t-shirt says it all – I’ve got the answer and you don’t. I know the intentions of those who wear “righteous tees” are usually not that hostile, but the problem with not thinking is this: it misrepresents Truth. In fact, it’s not even biblical and it’s even farther from the gospel. The words of Christ were “By this all men will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Not “…if you proudly display Christian apparel.” Let’s be as honest as the Scriptures: life, real life, the real adventure is messy, broken and much too complex to be explained away with a silver bullet of verbose evangelical oversimplification. But I digress, because…

It wasn’t even a Christian t-shirt that spoke truth to me, but a cheap marketing tag line designed to sell a souvenir to tourists in the office of a whitewater rafting office. On top of that, it was hanging next to the bold, 96-type font shirt that declared “I love BJ’s” (which of course, means Buffalo Joe’s rafting and nothing else, you twisted people). And I only bring that up so you understand the irony of the moment for me, and the unusual ways in which God grabs your attention when you least expect it, right in the middle of rolling your eyes and shaking your head. The message was simple but in the greater context of my week had no less impact than a cannon blast to my soul:

The journey is the destination.

And with that one simple phrase the Holy Spirit flooded my heart with missives that were painful and beautiful at the same time: “This is what I’ve been trying to tell you. Cease your striving and know I am God (Psalm 46:10). Quit overloading your life to the point that you can’t spiritually discern a true Giant from a harmless windmill. This is the third era of God’s epic story, and you have a role to play, real battles to fight for the cause of redemption. But you can’t be ready for the next challenge if you’re worn out and wounded from foolishly trying to conquer everything that moves. Remember, this is my story, my adventure that I have invited you to be a part of. You do have an ultimate destination in a far country far more spectacular than this high country. And you need to live this journey believing with all your heart that the next journey exists. But for you the pendulum often swings too far, so embrace grace: what I’m doing all around you in this life. Look around, breathe deeply and enjoy the ride while you’re discovering who I created you to be. Don’t be afraid to laugh more. Enjoy watching your little girls grow up, savoring each stage that will pass more quickly than you ever imagined, just as I, your heavenly Father, enjoy watching you do the same. Help confused people find their life stories in Mine. Always be more, not less. Cherish the wife of your youth. Drink deeply and live out of the overflow. Live large and love passionately. You didn’t fear the ups and downs of the river today, but you looked forward with anticipation to what new challenge was around the next bend of the canyon wall…so live in that anticipation: that you may not know what tomorrow holds, that it may be a challenge, but that I know where the river runs and just how far it will carry you. So today feel my pleasure and embrace the journey for you are loved.”



“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him.” – Romans 12:1-2 (MSG)

Stuff to do in Colorado

Before you die, you need to do this stuff in Colorado...

Have a fantastic cup of coffee at the highest town above sea level in the country.

(Leadville, CO * 10,200 ft)

Stay in this amazing hunting lodge built on the side of Mount Harvard with great friends.

(But drinks lots of water to avoid altitude sickness)

Whitewater raft the Arkansas River with the Fantastic Four!

(And as the Fifth member, my super-power is to always remind everyone that spandex is a privilege, not a right.)

Rocky Mountain Musings

“This is the adventure.” – Bill Murray in “The Life Aquatic”

“Cease your striving, and know I am God.” – Psalm 46:10

This week finds me in the Rocky Mountains, at a hunting lodge built at 9200 ft above sea level on the side of Mount Harvard, pondering the destination versus the journey. I am supposed to be at a writer’s conference, but instead I find myself finding some space and time in a new setting to wrestle honestly with the things the Spirit has been whispering in my ear but I have been too busy and too chicken to really engage. The thin air is clearing my mind from the recent ridiculously full stretch run of planning, interviewing, meeting and doing, doing, doing. Here are some items I am grappling with in my heart, soul and mind.

“I had to lose a son, a wife and a ministry before I truly found what I wanted to do. I wish I had another 50 years to give to this place and these men.” Last night after dinner I had this conversation with Serendipity founder and septuagenarian Lyman Coleman. This man founded the Christian coffeehouse movement in New York in the 60’s, worked alongside Billy Graham the peak of his ministry, and has been described as the godfather of the modern small group movement in America. He now gives his life to helping broken men heal from their past at weekend retreat facilitated at this lodge that he built for the purpose of “redemptive community.” I hope God can use my life in such powerful ways before I find what I want to do…

“One of the best ways to become interesting in your speaking is to become interested in your living. People aren’t looking for profound life-changing messages; they instead are looking for lives that have been profoundly changed by the message.” – Erwin McManus collides with…
“My religious education taught me how to study, exegete, and break things down to their smallest part. What it didn’t do was equip me to see the big story…Don’t waste your life on a small story, when God is inviting you to a much larger one.” – publisher Ron Keck

So when am I going to get it? When am I going to finally break free of “oh, it will be better when we get to this place,” or “when we hit the next stage of parenting, that will be the best,” or “if we could just get this resource or this person on staff or this facility, then we’ll get there.” I will never get “there” this side of heaven. I will never be able to relax because there is always more to do, another destination after I reach the peak I can see in front of me right now, a new challenge around the corner. So I need to stop asking “are we there yet?” like a bored four-year-old and recognize that where I am at is where God has placed me on the journey; so embrace it, enjoy it, write a book about it, sing about it, laugh about it, hug it, hold onto it, and love it with everything I’ve got, because I have no idea what the next day, or chapter, or turn of the page will hold.

“Go, eat your food with gladness and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do.” – Ecclesiastes 9:7

SUPERMAN Returns

…at Brentwood Baptist Church!

Seriously, don’t ever miss a LifeGroup Celebration, because you never know what random sight you might see (like Superman getting tagged out by a 7th grade girl in the Dodge Ball arena…so much for superpowers…but man, do I love kids like Matt Morris who aren't afraid to have fun!)

Eliza's Secret Wish

This story will tell you much about life in the Strother household.

Eliza’s preschool class “writes” a book about once a month. The teacher has each 5-year-old summon their creative energy, utilize the 64-count box of crayons to make an illustration, and then helps that child write a caption for each page that goes with the “theme” of their book. This month’s theme was “My Secret Wish.” As you would imagine, there were some very creative, but very typical 5-year-old kind of answers:

I want to have a volcano in my backyard!
I want to be a princess and have my own castle!
I want a yacht with a 200-horsepower Dodge engine that will go 56 MPH!

Eliza’s secret wish:
"Eliza’s secret wish is for Lexi to be quiet while Eliza tries to sleep."

Life is good, sleep is better.

Crawfish Bowl II

For the second year in a row, the senior guys LifeGroup celebrated a great year together with a crazy crawfish boil. This year, we didn’t have to set up orange cones to blockade an entire cul-de-sac, instead making the best use of the back parking lot of the church since the “game sports” track of SACK lunch week of 2003. The sky was stunning, the crawfish a bit spicy, and the celebration of the journey together a perfect ending to a year of ups and downs.

Guys, it’s been a great ride…I affirm the words of Max Baker to of the class of 2006: Don’t go chasing waterfalls.