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  • The Dogs of Stay – Shake it Off!

    The Dogs of Stay – Shake it Off!

    Leading up to the release of Stay I will be posting some brief excerpts from the book. This lesson came from a summer outing and watching Hannah “shake off” water in impressive fashion.

    Hannah 2

    The life lesson from Hannah was not how to shake off water. What I need to learn is how she can shake off rejection and disappointment way better than I can. If I say no, Hannah doesn’t get insecure and touchy. When she is rejected, she doesn’t start wondering why she is not good enough. She doesn’t hear condemning barks from her puppyhood. She doesn’t flash back to her littermates mocking her with cruel yips. She doesn’t think, Maybe Dad doesn’t like that toy; if I bring his favorite toy I’m sure he won’t be able to resist. Hannah doesn’t slink away and hide, thinking she is worthless if I don’t respond. She simply accepts that now is not the time and communicates through her body language and gaze that everything’s okay—she’s cool with me. Oh, and by the way, I’ll be back soon. Hannah doesn’t shut down. She simply tries again, with self-image undaunted.
    Not so for me. I immediately hear the voices of condemnation when I am rejected or someone is angry at me. I couldn’t think of any verses about shaking off water, but I did recall a verse from Hebrews about “shaking” or “throwing” off those things that cause us to stumble.
    Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. (12:1, NIV)
    When she climbs out of the pool, Hannah has definitely learned how to throw off the water that hinders her. I love the imagery of getting up and shaking off all the things (even some good things) that hinder me from an intimate relationship with God.
    Did you catch the part that it is not only sin that entangles us? That is what I tended to dwell on—to “get better” for God and be more “righteous.” But the verse says to throw off any weight or encumbrance. In order for me to be used most effectively for God, that good thing that is not the best thing has to go. As Timothy Keller explains perfectly, “An idol is a good thing turned into an ultimate thing.”

    Taken from Stay by Dave Burchett copyright © 2015. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

  • The Dogs of Stay – Part 2

    The Dogs of Stay – Part 2

    One of the great philosophical questions of our age was addressed lyrically a few years ago. And I quote from that thoughtful anthem by Baja Men.

    Who let the dogs out
    (woof, woof, woof, woof)
    (woof, woof, woof, woof)
    Today we know a partial answer to that haunting query. On February 24th Tyndale Publishing House will let the dogs of Stay out to your E-Reader, bookstore, and online vendor of choice. As a lead up to that day we thought it would be fun to do some bios of the dogs featured in my new book.
    The stars of the book are Hannah and our new rescued friend Maggie. Hannah was our amazing friend and canine comforter during Joni’s cancer journey nine years ago. Hannah’s best canine friend was Sadie.
    Our son Scott adopted Sadie while attending Baylor University and it was love at first sight for both of them.
         PD_0180
    A bit later Hannah joined the family and these two became fast friends. It was remarkable watching them interact. Here is how I described a visit to see Sadie in Stay.
    Just the mention of her best friend’s name gets Hannah excited. From the moment we pull out of the driveway and head to Sadie’s house (at least Sadie thinks it is hers), you can see Hannah’s growing eagerness as we drive through the neighborhood. My canine navigator doesn’t need a GPS for this familiar route. Her ears perk up and her tail begins to wag as we get closer.
    When we arrive, she jumps out of the car and heads straight to the front door without the normal olfactory explorations. She bounces up and down because her sweet friend is on the other side. Suddenly, the door opens and the greeting is simple. There is no extensive sniffing or posturing; their body language is relaxed. They are two old girlfriends.
    Watching how easily Hannah and Sadie settle in together is a hallmark of real friendship. Real friends come together as if time has never passed. Whether it’s been hours, days, or years since you’ve been together, when you see a real friend, you immediately feel safety, comfort, and connection.  Taken from Stay by Dave Burchett copyright © 2015. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.
    Hannah and Sadie hangin

    A song by the Avett Brothers titled The Perfect Space expresses the yearning of my heart.

    I wanna’ have friends that I can trust,
    that love me for the man I’ve become not the man I was.

    Wouldn’t that be amazing? To have a friend that you could trust with all that is true about you and feel safe. All of us have a deep need to be known and accepted.

    Hannah and Sadie demonstrated that kind of friendship. Friendly competition to fetch tennis balls in the pool. No jealousy when the other one got attention. They just loved to be together.
          DSC_0977
    For their human friends the the truth is that nothing creates an environment of trust like humility and loyalty. In that soil deep friendship grows. When you look at your friends through the lens of grace you see who they have become and, more importantly, who they can become in Christ.
    This journey is hard. We all need friends who can be real and present.
    The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense. (Proverbs 27:9, NLT)
    Next up in The Dogs of Stay…Rescued and Adopted!
  • The Dogs of Stay

    The Dogs of Stay

    I almost changed the title of this series of canine bios leading up to the release of my new book Stay. The title sounded like the followup reality series to the Housewives of Orange County. But rest assured the Dogs of Stay are far less catty. Sorry. Couldn’t resist.

    I am really excited about Stay and I thought it would be fun to get to know some of the “stars” of my new book. First up is our unforgettable Golden Retriever Charlie.

          PD_0002Puppy Charlie making sure the dishes are all clean.

    Most of us remember our dogs because they leave paw prints on our heart. Charlie certainly did that. But just to make sure he was not forgotten he left chew marks on our table, scratch marks on our doors and teeth marks on our doorknobs. I quoted John Grogan (of Marley fame) in Stay about the charm of dogs like Charlie. “Dogs are great. Bad dogs, if we can really call them that, are perhaps the greatest of them all.”

    By that standard Charlie was one of the greatest dogs that ever lived. At least our three boys thought he was. My long suffering wife was not so sure.  I describe his humorous (and sometimes not so humorous) destruction of our house in Stay along with a poignant moment shared with a NYC Policeman.

        PD_0050Our boys loved Charlie and he loved them back with the same exuberance that he did everything else.

        PD_0004Charlie was eccentric.

         PD_0005Funny.

                                                        PD_0003Charlie was eighty pounds of hard charging intensity.

     

    He was loving. Infuriating. And he was intensely loyal to his three boys.

    Charlie gave me a bonus lesson that is not in the upcoming book. Sometimes I wonder how God can love someone as messed up, inconsistent and sorry as me. And I remember how an impatient and selfish man like me could love that disaster of a canine that was Charlie. If I can muster that in my soul then why can’t I believe that a God who sent His Son to the Cross for me would still love me with all of my flaws? God loved me first and completely. I will have some fleeting moments when I please God but for the most part I will be leaving a trail of well intentioned disaster in my path just like Charlie. And God loves me just as much at those moments. Amazing.

    Featured next will be Hannah’s best friend Sadie.

    DSC_0977

     

     

  • Can We Ever Really Get Together?

    Can We Ever Really Get Together?

    A peace anthem from my youth came on the radio today. The Youngbloods recorded “Get Together” in 1967 and it became one of the quintessential peace songs of the era.

    I remember listening to the static on my AM transistor radio while singing along with The Youngbloods. I was sure that my generation could make a difference. We would fix the mess that my parents and grandparents had made. We believed peace was possible. We just had to get together. This would be easy enough. Just love one another. Everybody sing now…

    C’mon people now,
    Smile on your brother
    Ev’rybody get together
    Try and love one another right now

    Nice words. The problem was contained in the last line of lyric above. Try and love one another right now. How is that working out for our peace loving generation? Not so well. It is far easier to sing about loving one another than it is to actually love another. No matter how much I “try” I seem to fail miserably when I determine that I will, in my own strength, love others. It is easy to love some people. But loving the unlovable is the challenge. On that count we have not done so well. Jesus pointed out my hypocrisy on that count.

    • If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. (Matthew 5:46-47, NLT)

    As an idealistic teen I believed that more education, communication, and edification would change the world. I believed that the problem was not sin. The problem was a lack of knowledge. I was wrong. The problem is sin. Education and communication certainly help. But real change comes from the inside out. And for me that came from the most amazing revolutionary in history, Jesus Christ. How we have marginalized the powerful teachings of Jesus. He bluntly said that peace was not going to be found in this life.

    • “But the time is coming–in fact, it is already here–when you will be scattered, each one going his own way, leaving me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”   (John 16, NLT)

    Jesus said the Holy Spirit would comfort us in times of trouble and that the peace the world advocates would fall short.

    • “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”  (John 14, NLT)

    I watch the news and my heart aches. I wish we could have peace on earth but I have come to believe that is not possible through human institutions. I truly wish it were possible.

    It is not in my trying that we can get together. It is by trusting God and allowing Him to love me. Then I can love others because of Christ. Only then can we truly love one another.

  • Hump Day Hope – Power Versus Influence

    Hump Day Hope – Power Versus Influence

    The pundits are parsing the State of the Union address this morning. My friend Ed Underwood wrote a wonderful piece on the topic of power versus influence. Today I yield my space to the gentleman from California.

    (Reposted from EdUnderwood.com.)

    Every time Jesus’ first disciples dreamed of position and power, He warned them that His measure of greatness was serving (Mark 9:33-37; 10:35-45). When we ignore His warning dreams of position and power sidetrack us.

    Books and sermons on a Christian’s relationship to government often fail to distinguish between political power and cultural influence. The primary passages—Matthew 5:13-16, Romans 13:1-7, 1 Timothy 2:1-4, 1 Peter 2:13-16—clearly teach us that our role is to use whatever position we have to influence society toward righteousness and justice as we submit to governmental authority.

    Biblically, influence and power are not the same. The influence is ours, but the power is God’s. Historically, when Christians confuse the two, we lose both—today and forever.

    Confusing influence and power diverts our energies from the only true hope for any society—the transforming power of new life in Christ. The Bible says we’re new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) endowed with power from on high (Acts 1:8) to live a life only explained by God’s presence in us (John 14:20).

    Where we choose to invest our time and resources depends largely on where we think the solution lies. As more and more of us decide that the solution is political power, it changes our priorities.

    We know Christ commands us to influence our culture. And we know that one of the primary ways we do this as Americans is by voting. But, these are the questions that bother me most when I think of all the time and energy Christians have poured into the pursuit of political power in the decades since the 60s:

    • America hasn’t become more righteous and just; it’s more decadent and unfair. What would have happened if we had devoted more effort equipping Christians to live out the gospel of Christ and less to telling Christians how to vote?
    • Families aren’t getting healthier; they’re falling apart. How do you think the families of our country would be different if we had been more passionate about transforming families in the way Christ values—through the hard work of disciplemaking in the context of authentic spiritual communities and less obsessive about entrenching the family value message in Washington D. C.?
    • The church doesn’t have more impact; its influence is almost negligible. What if Christians had spent more time studying their Bibles and praying for their neighborhoods, communities, states and nation, and less time glued to conservative talk radio and cable news while worrying about exit polls and economic trends?

    Confusing influence and power also deflects our focus from the state and final destination of human beings—either living in His love and power now looking forward to being with Jesus forever in a place called heaven or estranged from God in brokenness now and careening toward a forever in a place called hell. The Bible says we’re ambassadors of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20) representing Him as strangers and pilgrims (Hebrews 11:13). Our earthly citizenship is only temporary because we’re citizens of a better, heavenly country (Hebrews 11:16). Our true identity is in Christ and our true citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20).

  • Monday Musing: Redeemed. Believe it.

    Monday Musing: Redeemed. Believe it.

    One of my phone apps offers new music that I can redeem from the app. Recently I went to download a song and this message came up.

    Already redeemed.

    I had already acquired the song. There was no need for further redemption. It was mine. How I wish I could trust that for my relationship with God.

    A song by Big Daddy Weave called “Redeemed” sums up my struggle and encourages me to know that I am not alone in this battle.

    Seems like all I can see was the struggle
    Haunted by ghosts that lived in my past

    Bound up in shackles of all my failures
    Wondering how long is this gonna last

    Then You look at this prisoner and say to me “son
    stop fighting a fight that’s already been won”

    That is the truth I have to remind myself just about every day. The fight has already been won. Yet I too often live as if my self-effort is required to make up for past struggles and efforts. That I need to earn the grace that is already mine. I need to remind myself everyday what the lyricist proclaims next.

    I am redeemed, You set me free
    So I’ll shake off theses heavy chains
    Wipe away every stain now I’m not who I used to be
    I am redeemed

    I am redeemed. Paul had to remind the Ephesians in the first chapter that they already could count on these three facts being true. They already were:

    • Adopted
    • Redeemed
    • Sealed

    Makes me feel a little better that folks who were mentored by Paul needed a refresher course in who they were. It makes me feel a lot better that Paul understood that the first thing on the list was to remind them of who they were and then address their wrong behavior. We too often reverse that order. One more line from this wonderful song by Big Daddy Weave…

    I remember oh God, You’re not done with me yet.

    Praise God for that! And praise God for His amazing grace and amazing patience.

     

  • Where Is My Treasure?

    Where Is My Treasure?

    I have been doing this church thing for a lot of years. I have sung hundreds of songs over the four decades or so that I have been a follower of Jesus. Some lyrics moved me to deep worship of God. Some times I really meant what I was singing. Other times I was singing through the motions while thinking about when the kick off was going to happen.

    One song has always made me uncomfortable. The song was put to music by the legendary George Beverly Shea in 1932. The words were a poem written by Mrs.Rhea Miller in 1922.

    I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold;
    I’d rather be His than have riches untold;
    I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands,
    I’d rather be led by His nail pierced hand.

    Can I really say that I would rather have Jesus than silver or gold? Maybe my retirement fund will make that decision for me. Do I mean it when I sing that I’d rather be led by his nail pierced hand? Am I prepared to make Jesus more than an “activity” in my busy life? What would I have said if I was the young rich man described in Matthew? Here is the text from The Message.

    Another day, a man stopped Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”  Jesus said, “Why do you question me about what’s good? God is the One who is good. If you want to enter the life of God, just do what he tells you.”

     The man asked, “What in particular?”

     Jesus said, “Don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t lie, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as you do yourself.” The young man said, “I’ve done all that. What’s left?”

    His response has always surprised me. I think I would have begged for mercy after Jesus detailed that list. But the young man thought he was doing just fine. And then Jesus exposed his heart.

     “If you want to give it all you’ve got,” Jesus replied, “go sell your possessions; give everything to the poor. All your wealth will then be in heaven. Then come follow me.”

    That was the last thing the young man expected to hear. And so, crest-fallen, he walked away. He was holding on tight to a lot of things, and he couldn’t bear to let go.

    I have held on tight to a lot of things. As I get older I wonder why.

     As he watched him go, Jesus told his disciples, “Do you have any idea how difficult it is for the rich to enter God’s kingdom? Let me tell you, it’s easier to gallop a camel through a needle’s eye than for the rich to enter God’s kingdom.”

     The disciples were staggered. “Then who has any chance at all?”

     Jesus looked hard at them and said, “No chance at all if you think you can pull it off yourself. Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it.”

    I can do that. I can trust God. I have no choice because I have a long and spectacular track record of not being able to live this journey on my own ability. The song continues.

    I’d rather have Jesus than men’s applause;
    I’d rather be faithful to His dear cause;
    I’d rather have Jesus than world-wide fame,
    I’d rather be true to His holy name.

    Given the sales of my books I am pretty safe from the world-wide fame snare. But I do crave applause if I am not careful.

    He’s all that my hungering spirit needs,
    I’d rather have Jesus and let Him lead.

    Perhaps the uncertainty in the world will cause all of us to evaluate our dependence on Christ. I hope that I will continue to grow in my desire to echo Paul and his words to the Phillipians.

    “What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”

    So can I sing the words of this classic hymn and mean it? I am slowly, slowly, slowly getting closer.