randalevan's blog

"Trust Me" and the Pacific Grove Triathlon.

Given the fact I will enter into my fifth decade tomorrow, I decided I would get one more blog post in while I am still in my forties!

I wanted to write a quick post about an amazing experience I had two weeks ago today. As many of you know, I started doing triathlons in June, a small miracle in and of itself, given the fact I hadn't been able to run (*knee problems) for over ten years, not to mention the fact that I never swim. Anyway...

Immediately following my first "tri" in Morro Bay, I signed-up for my second in Pacific Grove...scheduled for September 10th. All my training was going as planned, and except for the occasional jitters and anxiety (*prayer works great...as does telling myself to relax!), I was good to go. Well, until early Friday morning...September the 9th.

Christmas all year round?

Do you know what "Epiphany" means? I had some idea, but decided to look up the definition on dictionary.com. Here is part of what I found:

e·piph·a·ny

/ɪˈpɪfəni/ Show Spelled[ih-pif-uh-nee]

1. (initial capital letter) a Christian festival, observed on January 6, commemorating the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles in the persons of the Magi;

2. an appearance or manifestation, esp. of a deity.

So, Epiphany the holiday happens today. (*And if you have never lived in Spain or any other country that celebrates El Día de los Reyes, you don't know what you are missing. In our kid's experience, living in Spain meant you received gifts on December 25th AND January 6th!)

But epiphany the manifestation of a deity (*in this case, Jesus) can happen any day. Jesus can breakthrough and come to life in the midst of the thick and thin of daily living. But..., how can that be?

Exercising our Faith Requires Taking Risks

Wouldn't it be nice if walking by faith was easier than walking by sight? No risk, no worries, and no confusion or doubts. The problem is, then it wouldn't be faith would it? The writer of the ancient letter to the Hebrews described faith in this way: "Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see." (Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 1.)

But what does "confidence" feel like? In my experience, it feels like jumping off the edge of a pool, believing that God will catch...but there is that hesitancy you feel before you actually leap...and...the adrenaline and fear that rush through your veins when you are airborne, inbetween the safety of the pool's edge and God's arms.

I had the privilege of traveling to Spain last month...something that I have been able to do quite often over the past nine years...something that I am grateful to God for. On the way back, I had what I would describe as a "divine encounter"...an encounter with someone who had recently taken "the plunge of faith"...someone who had a message from God for me...that I would like to share it with you.

You are my Beloved - Part II

Here's the second half of the Nouwen quote from the other day...

“I am putting this so directly and so simply because, though the experience of being the Beloved has never been completely absent from my life, I never claimed it as my core truth. I kept running around it in large or small circles, always looking for someone or something able to convince me of my Belovedness. It was as if I kept refusing to hear the voice that speaks from the very depth of my being and says: “You are my Beloved, on you my favor rests.” That voice has always been there, but it seems that I was much more eager to listen to the other, louder voices saying: “Prove that you are worth something; do something relevant, spectacular, or powerful, and then you will earn the love you so desire.” Meanwhile, the soft, gentle voice that speaks in the silence and solitude of my heart remained unheard or, at least, unconvincing."

my wish

i have always liked this song...

 

  My wish, for you, is that your life becomes all that you want it to.

You are my Beloved

Someone I care about very much was going through a rough time recently. Because I love them, I wanted to comfort them. As I thought about what to say, I remembered a quote from a book by Henri Nouwen, a Dutch priest and prolific author who passed away several years ago. In his book, Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living In a Secular World, he writes:

"Ever since you asked me to write for you and your friends about the spiritual life, I have been wondering if there might be one word I would most want you to remember when you finished reading all I wish to say. Over the past year, that special word has gradually emerged from the depths of my own heart. It is the word "Beloved," and I am convinced that it has been given to me for the sake of you and your friends.

when i feel surrounded...

i have had one of the most peculiar weeks of my life. last saturday an old high school friend wrote me and told me that a good friend of his had just died of cancer. then on sunday afternoon i received an email from friends in spain informing that a mutual, dear friend had just died of cancer. then on monday i exchanged emails with another friend who is planning a 1-year memorial for his wife who died of cancer last year. then a good friend called me and told me that his skin cancer had returned...and it sounded serious. then one of the people i work with told me that an old college friend was given just a few weeks to live...they were dying of cancer. when another work associate heard of this, they told me that they had just heard that one of their old high school friends had just died of cancer over the weekend. oh, and did i mention that i was invited to a prayer meeting for a friend of several of my friends to pray for his healing...from cancer?

when this all started rolling-out, i thought, "wow, this is really breathe-taking. Lord, i need you.

i bet others go through things like this in their life, and they need you, too." so i decided to write something that i hope encourages you to find peace, hope, and comfort in Jesus.

oh, and before i go on, the last straw was a text message i received about 50 minutes ago, informing me that someone i know just had a heart attack, and had a stint put in one of their arteries.

does god call people to work in high tech?

i just read this piece written by pastor tim keller and i really liked it. i will copy it below, as well as include a website address at the bottom in case you would like to know more about keller and/or the church he pastors and leads

who do we turn to?

 
when life doesn't make sense, what do you do? sometimes i get angry. other times, i get busy. (*it's not so much that i go after busyness...it seems to come to me all by itself.) 

anyway, a couple of sundays' ago, our pastor alex van riesen preached a sermon using mark chapter 4, verses 1 thru 13. (*if you would like to listen to it, go to http://www.vcfp.org/sermons.html, and click-on "download" for the january 10th sermon.)

in his teaching, alex referred to the disciples' of jesus dilemma: he had just told a parable to a very large crowd of people about a farmer who had scattered a bunch of seed. it had fallen on four different types of soil, with four different results. given the agrarian nature of the culture he was speaking to, it appears that jesus had basically told them something they already knew. why did he do that?

Bonhoeffer on Community, part II.

Here are some other quotes from Bonhoeffer's Life Together, chapter 1:

"One is a brother to another only through Jesus Christ. I am a brother to another person through what Jesus Christ did for me and to me; the other person has become a brother to me through what Jesus Christ did for him.  This fact that we are brethren only through Jesus Christ is of immeasurable significance. Not only the other person who is earnest and devout, who comes to me seeking brotherhood, must I deal with in fellowship. My brother is rather that other person who has been redeemed by Christ, delivered from sin, and called to faith and eternal life. Not what a man is in himself as a Christian, his spirituality and piety, constitutes the basis of our community. What determines our brotherhood is what that man is by reason of Christ. Our community with one another consists solely in what Christ has done to both of us. This is true not merely at the beginning, as though in the course of time something else were to be added to our community; it remains so for all the future and to all eternity." (p.25.)