Another month has come and gone! How are these days so long and these months so short? Time just doesn’t make sense to me… Anyway, this month I had a visit from my brother Jared and his family! I have been looking forward to hanging out with them and doing some exploring. We were going to try and make it over to Crater Lake and then go around and see the different towns and stuff around Medford. Unfortunately when Jared and his crew arrived they were tired, sick, and ready to rest. My expectations for our time together were not fully met. We spent some great time together at my home and they got a chance to recuperate from their journey. We just spent time together in the living room, relaxing on the couches and watching movies for the first day they were here. It was so nice.

We had planned to do a lot of things and go see some different places but what we ended up doing was just resting together. That was better than anything I could have planned. Sometimes that is the best thing we can do together. Be a place of rest for each other during our long journey. It wasn’t really easy having a bunch of sick people in my house or having little packing peanuts end up scattered around my house! But to have a full home with a full heart is worth the mess of being with other people. Sometimes it is frustrating to have to deal with their junk in addition to our own but it is absolutely worth it. To have their smiles, to have their laughter, to be able to joke and catch up with them; the chance to just take a break, together, from all the wild adventures that we go on is something that shouldn’t be passed over.

This same kind of resting together is what I love about the church. We come together to rest and relax after a long week and find space to laugh and learn about how each one has been over the course of the intervening time. We have this space that is safe and is home for us. In coming together to rest (even with the mess each one brings) we find ourselves more connected as a family, as the Body of Christ here in Medford. Our journey together needs little breaks and time, to simply be with one another and remember each other before the Lord. What a blessing to be part of this family of God!

UNDEFEATED.

That word strikes me. It is used to describe a group or person who has never lost. It is not a word that I often ascribe to myself. I have lost in my life. I have started things and failed to complete them. I have been defeated. These defeats have helped me to learn perseverance and what it means to live with failures as a part of your history. American’s love winners; we love to have a connection to the winning group. We want to feel success through their victories. We invest heavily in sports teams who are winners. Sports teams invest in players who have a proven record of wins, or the potential to build a winning record with them. We want to win.

Recently I have been coaching soccer for the U8 league that is here in Medford. Our guys range in age from 6-8, they are wild, they are wacky, and they are worth every minute spent with them. Their youthful exuberance at playing the game gives me joy. What makes me even happier as a first year coach is that they are winning. I am not sure we are supposed to keep track of that. I can tell you that the guys certainly do. They know what winning feels like. They are undefeated. This is certainly not due to any coaching acumen that I have. This is my first time coaching and because of the group of guys that I have been given we are winning. They want to win, they strive to do well, and they want to be on the field giving their all. They also have to sit, they have to learn to wait and to play in positions they don’t feel are as valuable. They have to work outside their strengths to make the whole team better. They have to learn how to lose. Not just how to lose, but how to lose well. They can define themselves as winners right now but when the first loss comes they may define themselves as losers. How they view who they are is important; this is most likely why in youth sports leagues nowadays we have trophies for all participants. What they base their view of their self on is often tied to their actions, the results they get.

As Christians we have the chance to help people redefine who they are, not based on their actions or the results they get. We have a message that ties who they are to something they have no control over, that is unchanging, that is forever going to be positive, and that can reshape not just their perception of their life but the way they live. We have the chance to help people recognize that they were created to be in relationship with God, that He loves them, and that He has made a way for them to be with Him. We have the chance to offer them a perception of their self that is based on what God see’s when He looks at them and not what they typically measure their life with. God has created each person to be with Him. He wants us all to be His children, alive in His kingdom, living for His purpose. To live in this truth requires surrender to His will and ways. Surrender feels like defeat. And everyone wants to win. How do we convince people that the only way to truly live an undefeated life is to surrender to the ultimate victor? We live in the victory that Christ has provided for us and let other people see what this surrender has done for us. This month, I am asking that we live as an undefeated people because of the things that God has done on our behalf and that we invite people to join us as we learn what it means to be part of Christ’s victorious team.