On Tuesday, I led a devotional for our staff where I explained the Law of Unintended Consequences.  This is akin to Murphy’s Law (What can go wrong, will). It’s not a law of nature, or man-made law.  It’s a “law” of the human condition.

The Law of Unintended Consequences states that an act will often produce unforeseen results that are harmful to, sometimes the exact opposite of, what we intended.  A few examples: the prohibition laws of the 1920s, by targeting bootleggers, helped consolidate large-scale organized crime (as did the “war on crime” of the 1980s, by targeting street dealers, strengthen the off-shore drug cartels); Suppressing information almost always leads to its greater dissemination (called “The Streisand Effect”); Trying to impress people usually makes them respect you less. And so on.

Genesis 25 demonstrates the Law of Unintended Consequences.  Abraham marries a second wife, Keturah, after the death of his first wife, Sarah.  He has many sons with Keturah.  But in order to protect his son Isaac, the heir, the chosen one, the son of promise, Abraham cuts his other sons out of his inheritance and sends them away.  Literally, he “sent them away from his son Isaac.” (Genesis 25:6).

That accomplishes what he intends: Isaac is protected from whatever threat they represent.  Only, Abraham’s banished sons come back to haunt the people of God.  Among those sons, for example, is Midian.  Midian, estranged from Abraham and Isaac, fathers an entire people group, the Midianites.  The Midianites, several generations later, sorely oppress the Israelites, the descendants of Abraham and Isaac.  It’s the Midianites whom Gideon, with his army of 300, has to battle against several hundred years later.

Abraham gained short-term security for long-term heartache.  He protected the “chosen son” from harm but unwittingly subjected the “chosen people” to harm, and on a much larger scale.  So that one son would not be inconvenienced during his lifetime, many sons suffered grievously for many lifetimes.

The Law of Unintended Consequences.

Here’s a good conversation to have with yourself, with your family, with your small group: What is your “Isaac”?  What is that thing that, in your effort to protect it, you might actually put it at risk?  A position of power you cling to so tenaciously that you could end up destroying the very thing you’re trying to keep?  A child you’re so over-protecting you might end up driving him/her into rebellion?  A dream you’re so bent on fulfilling, you could end up hating it even if you accomplish it?

Part of the difficulty here is we often can’t foresee the consequences of our actions.  Thank God he is the One who “works all things together for the good of those who love him and are called to his purposes.”

But some of this requires wisdom.

Maybe if Abraham had given some of his inheritance to his other children, and let Isaac fend for himself a bit, Israel would later have thrived instead of staggered.

Here’s a prayer I’m learning to pray:  ‘God, where it rests with me, may I act wisely, not only for this moment, but for the sake of those who will reap the consequences of my actions and my decisions. Amen.’

By Mark Buchanan
used by permission

FURTHER READING

• Let Go to Grow
• When We Dare to Let God be For Us
• The Way to Know God

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The post The Law of Unintended Consequences can be found at Thoughts about God.

I’ve spent most of the day, and will spend most of tomorrow, in a training session for a Leadership Development curriculum we plan to implement at my church I lead.  The curriculum is insightful, biblical, and practical.  I believe it will take our church from good to great.

One of my favorite moments was when Becky Skutt, one of the instructors, wrapped Pastor Rob in Saran Wrap. As she walked around him, encasing him in layer upon layer of plastic film, she described how words from our past bind us.  Then she asked him to move.  He couldn’t.

That was a vivid object lesson: some words immobilize.

Then she took scissors and, in a single motion, cut him free.

That, too, was a vivid object lesson: God’s word liberates (see Hebrews 4:12).

Which words do you believe?  The entire key to a believer’s growth is choosing to believe God.  It is a resolve of heart and mind to trust his word over every other word, and to measure all words by his.

Have any words bound you that you need his word to cut through?

by Mark Buchanan
used by permission

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• God’s Word Gives Joy and Light
• His Authority
• His Word Remains Forever

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The post Which Word is True? can be found at Thoughts about God.

“. . .  redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”  Ephesians 5:16

That’s one of the Apostle Paul’s phrases (Ephesians 5:16); the phrase is sometimes translated as “make the most of every opportunity,” but I prefer “redeeming the time”.  Redemption language is mostly used in connection with salvation.  But the original context for that language was the slave market, when a slave’s freedom was purchased.  When that happened, the slave was redeemed: bought at a price, paid in full, and set free.  It’s a striking picture of what Jesus did for you: bought you at a price — his own blood — paid in full, and set you free.  You’re not a slave (to the devil, to sin, to fear, to death, to selfishness) anymore.

Jesus did even more: he then adopted you as his child, and appointed you as his priest and ambassador.

He redeemed you. Is there a better story in all the earth?

And this is the language Paul uses in relation to time: Redeem it. Buy it back, set it free, and appoint it to a new purpose entirely.  So much of our time is “enslaved” — we’re stuck in traffic, or waiting outside a doctor’s office, or sick in bed, or locked into a job we can barely stand.  Time is our taskmaster. It rules us, and grinds us.

Well, redeem it: pray in the traffic jam, ‘walk across the room’ in the Doctor’s office, memorize the Word on your sick bed,  turn your menial tasks into acts of worship.  When you do that, you rule time, and it submits to you. You’re free.

My challenge to you this week: when you find yourself in circumstances you can’t change — time is not your own, but is ‘enslaved’ to some other purpose. Ask God how you might, there and then, redeem it. And then just do it.

by Mark Buchanan
used by permission

FURTHER READING

• Time: God’s Gift to You and Me
• Imagine Jesus being too busy to Pray
• Living Calm in a Chaotic World

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The post Redeem the Time can be found at Thoughts about God.

Last week, I began my Pastor’s Summary whining about my computer — It emitted an incessant squawking that was playing havoc with my mind.  I had disabled things and downloaded things and even removed the computer’s speaker, all to no avail.  I was considering more radical interventions.

Then Shirley Hill got in touch with me.  She said she had the same problem with her computer.  Her problem was caused by a faulty fan which in turn caused overheating.  “I’m sure you’ve thought of this already” she said. Well, um, actually, no.

So I pulled the terminal back from the side of the desk, it vented straight into it. So I took off the cover and cleaned the computer’s insides thoroughly.

It’s been blissfully silent ever since.

Thanks, Shirley!

I learned a valuable lesson in this, and not just about computers.  It was a spiritual lesson:  I have not because I ask not.  Months back I might have rid myself of the problem if, instead of complaining, I’d simply asked for help.

I wonder how often I’ve missed solving a problem because I’m too stubborn or prideful or lazy to ask, or simply because the habit of complaining has displaced the discipline of seeking.  I wonder which of my problems have simple solutions, only I’m oblivious to them.  To find them, I have to humble myself and ask.

And I wonder if you’re like me.

Recently, the Elders at our church have been talking about establishing ‘Elders at the Gate‘ for those in our midst full of wisdom and the Holy Spirit who, though they might not hold an official leadership position, could be excellent sources of insight and guidance for those who do.  These would be people whom we could turn to when we’re wrestling with an issue and need more than our own opinion.  We haven’t come up with a clear proposal yet, but more and more were longing for something like this. Maybe all kinds of irritating little things, and a few devastating big ones, might be solved, just for the asking.

Now a personal challenge:  do you have people in your life to whom you go for counsel?  Is there a struggle in your finances, your marriage, your child-rearing, your business, that’s stumped you and plagued you?  Perhaps you have a well-worn habit of griping about it.  But maybe the solution is merely a question or two away, directed at the right person.  Maybe it’s as simple as, ‘Clean the inside’.

Why not humble yourself, and ask?

by Mark Buchanan
used by permission

FURTHER READING

• You Asked God for What?
• Why Don’t You Ask
• Anything You Ask

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The post You Have Not Because You Ask Not… can be found at Thoughts about God.

I took part of last week off, just before Easter, and renovated our downstairs bathroom -an exercise in major frustration, minor satisfaction, and huge empathy for people who work in the trades. Simple plumbing (and the worst of it I paid someone else to do) forced me into contortions that my muscles are still recovering from, and fiddling with leaky joints and ill-fitting appliances tested my patience worse than Toronto traffic. It took longer than I had planned, cost more than I had budgeted, and resulted in less than I had dreamed.  All the same, my son is thrilled – he’s got a snazzy bathroom mostly to himself; and my wife is thrilled – she does not have to put up with one more oafish man lumbering about in her bathroom, overusing the toilet paper, overshooting the toilet bowl, and spattering the mirror with toothpaste.

So I guess I’m thrilled.

Somebody asked me how doing ‘real work’ compared with pastoral ministry. It’s both better and worse.  Better because, when you’re done, there’s something standing that, short of fire, tsunami, or earthquake, will still be standing next week, next year, next decade.  You don’t, it feels, get that kind of permanence too often in my day job. There, things I build or renovate don’t usually hold together very long.  Sermons that take hours to prepare are forgotten by those who hear them before they reach the parking lot.  Counseling sessions that I pour my best into still end, sometimes, with the marriage dissolving or the person depressed.  And so on.  So there’s a certain joy in actually making something or fixing something that stays made or fixed.

But ‘real work’ is also worse.  As much as I like walking into that bathroom and finding the sink I installed still upright and gleaming, time after time, I have no illusions that my installing it intersected eternity.  That’s the joy I get in pastoral ministry: a word or deed here has the power to touch the inmost parts of a person’s heart, extend to the ends of the earth, and last forever.

None of that is true of my -bathroom renovation.

Here’s the really good part: all followers of Jesus have this inmost, utmost, eternal power.  All of us, no matter what our day job, have opportunity to intersect eternity.  Following Jesus means we steward this power well.  We live by the Apostle Paul’s counsel:

“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” (Colossians 4:2, 4-6).

Not everyone is good at trade work. Some, like me, can manage it, poorly. But all of us can heed Paul’s counsel. All of us can intersect eternity.

Then, even when your last renovation is in need of another renovation, you know that God has taken something you’ve done – a word, a deed – and made it stand in the heavens, and nothing on earth can remove it.

By Mark Buchanan
used be permission

FURTHER READING

• You Make a Difference
• Ideas to Share Christ
• How to Make a Difference

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The post Intersecting Eternity can be found at Thoughts about God.

Cheryl and I attended Thursday night the premier of Broken Down, local filmmaker Harold Joe’s documentary of the inside story of those who live outside, the homeless. The film introduces us to three homeless (or formerly homeless) men from the Cowichan Valley, and one homeless man and three ladies, two currently on the streets, from Vancouver’s East Side. The movie’s production quality is rough-and-tumble, but it is a powerful depiction of the brutal hardships and daily struggles of those with no fixed address. And it is a stark reminder of their basic humanity.

Some of the scenes are heartrending: a beautiful but ravaged First Nations girl who lives in an alleyway in Vancouver, mourning the loss of her girlhood, craving her next fix. Or bracing: Brenda, a former heroin junkie who lived on Vancouver’s streets for 30 years, warning youth, “Don’t even think about experimenting with drugs”  Or touching: Red Beard, a Cowichan man who scrounges cans and bottles for beer money, taking the time to twist the openers off the mouths of cans so that he can contribute toward wheelchairs for disabled children.

Harold’s movie, I think, will become a catalyst for both deeper compassion and more concerted action in our community. The language is coarse in places, but never gratuitously so. It’s not suitable for young children, but I think everyone 12 or up should see it.  I’m going to make sure my own teenaged children see it.

The documentary’s title, Broken Down reminded me of verses from Isaiah 58:

If you do away with the yoke of oppression….
and if you spend yourself in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like noon day
Your people will be rebuild the ancient ruins
you will be called Repairer of Broken  Walls
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings (Isaiah 58:9,10, 12).

Whatever the causes, many and varied, that lead to broken down lives, God has one solution: his church and his people.  When we live in Christ-like compassion, God names us and makes us Repairers and Restorers.  In the place of ruins, homes. In the place of desolation, dwellings.

By Mark Buchannan
used by permission

The post Broken Down can be found at Thoughts about God.

“Be still, and know that I am God..”  Psalm 46:10

I’ve felt overwhelmed a few times this past while – caught in the too little, too late, too many, too much syndrome.  More than once, my time or wisdom or energy or patience seemed sorely outmatched by the need of the moment.  It’s like trying to extinguish a forest fire with a garden hose, fight a war with a pea shooter, navigate chaos in a row-boat.

Can you relate?

What do you do when that happens?

Here’s what I do: run around in rapid circles and scream like a 4-year old.

But that never seems to work (though the screaming brings minor and short-term relief, and has the added benefit of terrifying my neighbor’s cats). So my next and better resort is to sit down and shut up.  I am learning (ever so slowly) to convert my inadequacy into fresh dependency on God and, through that, a fresh discovery of God’s sufficiency.  God is in the habit of calling us down into valleys deeper and darker than our courage can bear, out onto waters rougher and wider than our stomachs can handle, up atop mountains taller and steeper than our strength can endure.  It’s in those places where we expend the last ounce of our own courage and calm and strength, and either fail miserably or come face-to-face with the living God.

I met this week with a friend who two years ago failed miserably.  He got out on the water, panicked, and sank.  But even in the depths, God was there.  He came face-to-face.  It is making all the difference.

I think when Peter walked on the water, Jesus knew full well what would happen: first he’d do fine, pirouetting on the waves, and then he’d lose nerve and start plummeting.  The bigness of the waves overwhelmed him.  But I think Jesus set it up for Peter to learn afresh his complete inadequacy in order to admit his utmost dependency in order to discover God’s total sufficiency.

So if you’re running around in rapid circles and screaming like a 4-year old (or your version thereof), try this instead: shut up, sit down, and rediscover the living God.  Convert your inadequacy into your dependency and there find His sufficiency.

By Mark Buchanan
Used by Permission

FURTHER READING

• God Can Speak into the Chaos of Your Life
• Chaos Now For Beauty Later
• How to Know God Personally

Homepage for the  Devotionals

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The post The Remedy for Chaos can be found at Thoughts about God.

Most real wisdom, the deep stuff, is formed in a crucible. It is shaped out of pain. We can know many things – things learned in books, things gleaned from observation or conversation, things fitted together through contemplation. All is good, and all is needed. But rarely does knowledge become wisdom without first passing through fire. It’s suffering that transmutes it. The difference between a scholar and a sage is not how much they know, but how much they’ve been broken.

But there’s a danger. Suffering also embitters. The difference between a sage and a grumbler is not how much they’ve been broken, but how much they’ve found grace in their brokenness. The wisest people I know have been through many hard things. But that’s true also of the most bitter people I know. All that’s made the difference, as far as I can tell, is that the wise keep finding grace, and the bitter keep missing it.

The Bible confirms this. “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many” Hebrews 12:15.

The Bible promises that there is no suffering devoid of grace. There is no pain where grace is absent. There is no loss or mistake where grace does not abound. Grace is everywhere, though sometimes it takes deep searching to see it. I have to choose daily, and then throughout the day, to find grace, and to lay hold of it.

Are you in a crucible? Are you going through something right now that threatens to embitter you?

Just stop. Breathe. Pray. And look around. Do you see it? Some sign of God’s goodness and presence right there, within reach? A cup of hot tea. A patch of sunlight on the floor. A cupboard with food in it. A dog that doesn’t care how messed up you are or how much you’ve messed up. A grandma that loves you.

A God that keeps running to greet you.

Grace abounds.

Don’t miss it, O wise one.

By Mark Buchanan
used by permission

FURTHER READING

• Wise Men Still Seek Him –  by John Fisher

• Get Wise – by Katherine Kehler

• Being Smart or Being Wise – by Julie Cosgrove

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The post What Make the Wise, Wise? can be found at Thoughts about God.

I was the keynote speaker at the staff retreat for Christianity Today Institute, a media conglomerate that operates out of Chicago. The theme they gave me: Why CTI? (Christianity Today Institute)  In other words, I was supposed to tell them why they existed, or at least why they should.

I chose to speak on Matthew 8, where a Roman Centurion comes to Jesus and asks him to heal his servant. Jesus offers to come to the man’s house right away.  The Centurion tells Jesus he doesn’t deserve for Jesus to do that (interestingly, the Centurion was more sensitive than Jesus was to the cultural custom of Jews shunning the houses of gentiles). The Centurion doesn’t think it’s necessary anyway: “Just say the word”, he tells Jesus, “and my servant will be healed.”

Jesus is astonished. Such faith!  He hasn’t seen faith like this anywhere in Israel.  He hasn’t found it in the Temple, the synagogues, the churches. Everywhere he’s gone among the faithful he’s found hesitancy, wariness, a demand to prove himself first, to establish his credentials.

And then this pagan, this man of the world, comes to him and simply says, “Just say the word”.  That’s all it will take.

The man wasn’t asking Jesus to quote Bible verses, or spout Christian platitudes.  He just wanted Jesus to speak truth with authority. That alone, he believed, would change things: raise the dead, heal the sick, comfort the sorrowing.

• Just say the word.
• Don’t embellish it. Don’t apologize for it. Don’t argue in its behalf.
• Just say it.

So that’s what I told this gathering of journalists and publishers. Write and speak with integrity, truthfulness, clarity. Believe in the One who has called you, who is with you, who is faithful to you. Do that and it will change things.

I’m not sure I inspired them. But I inspired myself, is the truth. I walked away freshly committed to just say the word.

By Mark Buchanan
Used by Permission

Further Reading

• Truth – A Devotional by Katherine Kehler

• Steps to Truth – A Devotional by Christa Hardin

• Truth – A Devotional by Roy Lessin

The post Just Say the Word can be found at Thoughts about God.

I met  with a Christian leader, and we got onto the topic, How do you lead in a storm?  How do you lead a church or organization or ministry or business or family in times of hardship, conflict and crisis, so that everyone comes out the other side stronger, wiser, better?

Well, here’s the answer in 2 easy steps – Of course, it’s not that easy. Not quite.  But it’s maybe easier than we think.

First, much of the Bible narrates and gives specific guidance for this very thing.  Most of the stories of biblical leadership “ Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Esther, Nehemiah, Paul, Jesus, and many more“ are stories of leading in a storm.  Joseph survives his brothers’ evil and rescues his brothers from their plight, and in the meanwhile saves a whole country from disaster.

Moses faces down Pharaoh.  Joshua faces down Jericho.  Nehemiah overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds to rebuild a city’s walls and a community’s hope.  Paul endures a juggernaut of opposition to fulfill his mission.  And Jesus, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame.Or just look at history: all great leaders were refined in fire, tested by storm.  All of these examples are there for us to glean their lessons.

Second, the deepest reality is that God is bigger than your storm.  He’s bigger than any storm.  If we don’t believe this, we’ll be like the disciples (many who were fishermen and should have been used to storms) panicking by the wind and the waves.  If we do believe it, we’ll walk on water.

Are you in a storm?  At work?  In your home?  In your finances?  Take courage from leaders who’ve gone before you and weathered storms, most worse than yours.

And take strength in knowing God is bigger than any and every storm, yours included.

By Mark Buchanan
Used by Permission

Further Reading

•  Being Honest and Ethical in Business 

•  From Success to Significance

•  Salvation Explained

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The post Leading in a Storm can be found at Thoughts about God.