Sunday, May 9, 2021

The Mothering Wings of God

This morning I was praying over a particular situation and I asked God to let me see him in the midst of it. What God brought to mind was a bird completely encircling me and my family in its wings. I recalled the verse in the Gospels where Jesus says that he longed to cover the people of Jerusalem with his wings as a Mother hen covers her chicks.

We often think of God as our Father, but everything that a Mother is came directly from the nature of God too. 

The love of a mother is intimate and tender. Mothers hold little humans when they sleep and when they are sick, and dry tears of pain and sadness. They wipe boogers and butts and clean everyone's underwear. They give the best snuggles and tickles and know just how to tuck in their kids like a burrito. 

God loves us like that.

But the love of a mother is ferocious and tenacious too. They are some of the hardest working and most sacrificial people I've met. They protect and advocate and fight for the people they love. Mom's don't give up. Rightfully, there's a healthy fear and respect for the Mama Bear. 

God loves us like that too.

Today, on Mother's Day, whether you have an amazing example of a mother's love or a difficult one, God longs to wrap you in his wings like a mother hen. He longs to cover you with tenderness and shelter you with the strength of his love. 

Let him.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem.... How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings..." Matthew 23:37

He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye, like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft. Deuteronomy 32:10-11

How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. Psalm 36:7

He will cover you with his wings; you will be safe in his care; his faithfulness will protect and defend you. Psalm 91:4

Monday, November 16, 2020

Grandma

Some people have a gift for making you feel seen when you're in their presence. People who use this gift with the most power are the ones whose gentle strength makes you feel seen and safe. When you're with people like that, you can't help but feel like the best version of yourself. They make even the most insignificant of us feel important, as if seeing you is the greatest gift of their day. I imagine it's exactly what it would feel like to sit face to face with Jesus.

Grandma was one of those people

It's no wonder that everyone loved her.

She was strong, but the gentle kind, and she was so sensible that when she told you that you all but hung the moon, you'd have no choice but to believe her. You knew she had your back and she could hold it down--while wearing pressed slacks and gold clip on earrings.

Grandma was not known for her culinary prowess, so it's ironic that one of the things she was family-famous for was her pancakes. She made the biggest, fluffiest pancakes, with crisp, buttery edges--to be eaten with lots of syrup and a cold glass of whole milk.

To this day I can't really name a breakfast I'd rather have. All of us have tried for years to replicate these magical pancakes made from an unassuming "Just Add Water" mix, but, we've all found out "they're not Grandma's pancakes!"

I wonder though if the real magic ingredient was Grandma. Not, like, in the pancakes...that'd be gross. It was the time you got to sit in her kitchen with the bright yellow cabinets, just talking, while she poured out a pancake the size of your face, served up, just for you. A moment in time that felt utterly ordinary but actually was magical because of who you spent it with.

Grandma was so many things. She was the lined yellow pads where she faithfully wrote out her sermons. She was the notecard that carried her thoughts of you to your door. She was back rubs when you were falling asleep, a soft voice reading about a boy who grew duck feet. She was a bag full of Cheetos to share. She was the easy mark for your pranks. She was the checkbook ledger carefully balanced. She was walks to the park and dinner so, so, so slowly eaten. She was a wife, daughter, sister, mother, Grandma, and more. She is a child of God. 

She was someone who would have thought this was maybe just a little too much fuss being made about her. She'd rather be talking about the people she loved, praising our victories and praying for our challenges. I think it's fitting then, that the only suitable tribute to a woman like that is to honor her impact in our lives by truly loving the people we love.

I may never have a pancake as good as Grandma's again, but perhaps, if I work at it, I can make one for someone I love, because, just maybe, the real trick wasn't the amount of butter she put in the pan or the consistency of the batter--believe me, I've tried! Maybe it was the steadiness in the hand that held the spatula, the love in the eyes that took time to see you, the gentle strength of her voice taking interest in you. Those are things I aspire to be: steady, loving, gentle, strong.

I wonder if that's the secret of everything we do here on earth. Every mundane thing can be made magical when bathed in the light of Christ-like love. Where you can make pancakes from a "Just Add Water" mix that people talk about for generations. Where the kind of strength and gentleness that can only come from the Holy Spirit leaves the people around you believing in the better versions of themselves.

It's a secret that Grandma had learned and shared with everyone in her life. It's a secret we have the chance to share with everyone in our lives.

I miss her. I'm grateful that I will get to see her again, and in the meantime, I want to learn to be more like her.

Saturday, May 30, 2020

Come to Gethsemane, My Friend

On the night before his crucifixion Jesus went to the garden of Gethsemane to grieve and to pray. He brought his friends with him, but his friends, his brothers, didn't extend to him the love of bearing witness to his grief. 

I get it. Grief makes me uncomfortable, especially to watch. It highlights all my insecurities about not being adequate. I don't know what to do. Its weight feels like a burden of accusation or its emptiness a yawning depth I fear might swallow me too. Look away. Get away. Honestly, those are my gut reactions when I see grief. 

Maybe that's why it was easiest for Jesus' friends to close their eyes and escape into sleep, when he asked them to sit with him. It's not that they didn't care about Jesus, they just didn't really understand his pain, and anyone's pain, understood or not, is uncomfortable to witness.

Right now, my black brothers and sisters, I want to acknowledge, that you are in the Garden of Grief, asking God to let this cup pass from you and your children. Jesus knows your pain, he grieved and cried out to God, in fear for his life. 

Come to Gethsemane, my friend. God sees you there. Jesus sits and grieves with you. But I want to sit and grieve with you too.

Right now, my white brothers and sisters, echoing through our nation is the gut reflex, look away, get away. The questions feel frightening, maybe even threatening. Why does evil wear a face like mine? Am I part of the problem? What can I really do? Our response may be to deflect, point fingers in other directions. Or maybe, it's just easier to close our eyes and sleep.

Come to Gethsemane, my friend. Our brothers and sisters are inviting us to bear witness to their grief, to cry out to God, together, to let this cup pass.

Some of us stay outside the garden and it is easy to deflect and to pass judgement on how others grieve. Did Jesus really need to cry to the point of sweating blood? Doesn't that seem a little extreme?

Some of us step into the garden but it all feels too big and too scary to face and so we anesthetize ourselves with sleep. We close our eyes on our sister's weeping, we turn our head from our brother's screams. 

This is not love. This is not living as the family of God. There is a different way.

Come to Gethsemane, my friends. In the Garden of grief you don't have to come with the "right" way to grieve. You don't have to come with the "right" answers. But, you do need to come with your eyes and ears open. In the garden, only our Father has the answers. In the garden, we only cling to each other and cry out and wait for Jesus to show us the path out.

Gethsemane is a place of grieving but it is also a place of submission. The path out will not be easy, Jesus showed us it is a path of sacrifice, a path of humility. I don't know what cross our Father will specifically call each of us to carry, but I know he will ask us to carry one. Our beloved, Jesus, carried one for us too.

Our Father will speak to each of us in Gethsemane, words of comfort and words of challenge, whispering to us the specific things he is asking us to submit to him. But he won't ask us to carry our crosses alone. Because of Jesus, our Father will never forsake us. This gives us courage.

Come to Gethsemane, my friends. We need Jesus and we need each other here. It is where the journey begins. It is where an ask for and an answer of sacrificial love changes the world.

Thursday, April 9, 2020

Good Friday - Meditations on the Last Seven Sayings of Jesus



Italicized words are added, otherwise content is taken from the ESV Bible


Father, Forgive Them


Today we remember that it is our sin that brought Jesus to the cross.  And it is only through the blood of Jesus that we find forgiveness.

     Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, declares the Lord GOD (Jeremiah 2:22).   For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 9:22).  Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.  Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.  But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many (Romans 5:12-15). For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23).

     It was written surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:4-6). And so if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).  And, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them (Hebrews 7:25).

     But who can forgive sins but God alone (Mark 2:7)?

     Jesus declared, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26:28).

     "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34)

Join me in a time of humble and grateful adoration of the undeserved forgiveness we find in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.


You Will be in Paradise

Not only do we find forgiveness in Jesus’ sacrifice, we are promised the hope of a future and eternal relationship with God.

    Jesus says truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life (John 6:47).

     It is written that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 5:21). And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son (1 John 5:11).  Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1-2)

     And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.  "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him (John 3:14-17).

    And Jesus promises, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life (John 5:24).  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven (Matthew 5:12).  Anybody who receives this reward shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." (Revelation 7:16-17).

    In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? (John 14:2).

     "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." (Luke 23:43)

Join me in prayer as we praise God for the hope that we have based on God’s promise of eternal life for those who believe.


Behold Your Son! Behold Your Mother!

Even in His last hour, Jesus was caring for His own.  One of His primary means of caring for and providing for His people is through the unity of the church—His Body. 

    Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom (Luke 12:32).  For God has so composed the body…that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together (1 Corinthians 12:24-26).

     Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock[…]. And now I commend you to God and […] (Acts 20:28-32)[ …] a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:34-35). For whoever loves God must also love his brother (1 John 4:21).

     When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son!"  Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" (John 19:26-17).

Join me in prayer as we thank God for the provision of the Body of Christ, and solemnly consider how we can better carry out His call on our lives.


Why Have You Forsaken Me?

Sin means death and eternal separation from God.  Jesus paid the price and experienced the agony of separation from His Father as He bore our sins.

    For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).  Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors (Isaiah 53:12).

     The way of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD (Proverbs 15:9).  Yes, your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.  For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies (Isaiah 59:2-3).

     Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace (Isaiah 53:5).  And He cried,

     "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46).

Join me in prayer as we acknowledge the agony that Christ endured on our behalf, so that we might be brought back to God.


I Thirst

To be our perfect sacrifice Christ was necessarily fully human, while still fully God.  He endured the temptation, the pain, and the suffering that came with that humiliation.

     And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).  When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons (Galatians 4:4-5).
He had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people (Hebrews 2:17).

     Humbled, as a human, He experienced suffering.

     He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised (Isaiah 53:3). In His suffering Jesus prayed, "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.  Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done."  And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him.  And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground (Luke 22:42-44).

    They spit in his face and struck him (Matthew 26:67).

     After all of this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said…"I thirst." (John 19:28).

Join me in prayer as we meditate on what Christ endured in His humanity, so that He might be our intercessor and let us pray for strength and guidance to the one who identifies with all our struggles.


It is Finished

God’s Word promises a covenant that would bring full victory over the power of Satan.  Jesus’ death was the only sacrifice necessary to atone for our sins once and for all.

     Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah (Jeremiah 31:31).

     Just as the LORD God said to the serpent, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel (Genesis 3:14).   For the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8).

     Just as Jesus explained to His disciples, "Everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.  For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon.  And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise." (Luke 18:31-34).

     And we know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.  For the death he died he died to sin, once for all (Romans 6:9-11).

     But death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law (1 Corinthians 15:54-56). For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit (1 Peter 3:18).

     For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near […].  Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, "Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.  Then I said, 'Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.'"  When he said above, "You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings" (these are offered according to the law), then he added, "Behold, I have come to do your will." He does away with the first in order to establish the second.   And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.  And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.  For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified (Hebrews 10:1-14).

     For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed (1 Corinthians 5:7).

     Jesus said, "It is finished" (John 19:30).

Join me in prayer as we stand in awe of the perfect and complete sacrifice, promised by God, and given through Jesus’ death on the cross, and understand that there can never again be a day that we are found guilty under the law.


Into Your Hands I commit my spirit

Jesus, the very Son of God, submitted to the authority of God, His Father.  Jesus knew that He could perfectly trust in God’s will. And in His last words before His death He again affirmed that He came to do the will of the One that sent Him.

    For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.  I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.  This charge I have received from my Father (John 10:17-18).

     For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me (John 6:38).

    "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.  Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done." (Luke 22:42) “I have come to do your will” (Hebrews 10:9).

    Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" And having said this he breathed his last (Luke 23:46).

In conclusion, join with me in prayer as we too commit our lives and our purposes to the authority of God.  We know that it is only through Jesus’ sacrifice that we can truly live.  And we can trust in and rest in His perfect will even in our struggles.


Thursday, July 5, 2018

Dear Urban Pastor

What you do is so hard. It's necessary and amazing, but it is hard.

You never seem to have enough money, enough time, enough help, enough...anything. God is so faithful to you, but there are still days when the load feels heavy and the road seems lonely.

Sometimes you sit around the table with leaders whose successes look different than yours and it's hard to not question if you're doing it right. Maybe you have a second or third job to make ends meet, attendance is spotty, and leadership development is painfully slow. Other leaders ask about your five year plans and you are wondering if you'll even make it through the next week.

Chances are that you ARE doing it right--you just might be doing something different. God never said your church had to look like anything but the Body of Christ.

Sometimes people even question your call. Couldn't you use your gifts in another place? At another church? In another neighborhood? You could go anywhere!

And you could. You could go anywhere to serve the Lord, but instead you have chosen to plant your feet in the midst of chaos and declare the victory of Jesus. Christ has used the light of his Word, held in your faithful hands, to beckon people out of the darkness. You have dared to follow the example of the Good Shepherd, who left the 99 to search for the 1. You and your family climb into the dark and rocky places searching for the lost.

I just want you to know that you are my s/hero.

If today is a day where the burden is heavy and the way seems unclear, let me speak truth to you. 

You are a beloved child of God. You have nothing to prove. 

You are a faithful servant of  the Almighty. There is nothing he cannot provide.

You are a warrior for the Victorious King. You can battle on, knowing the victory is sure.

You are the lamb of the Good Shepherd. There is rest and strength in his arms.

You are called and commissioned by Jesus. Your neighbors are worth taking up your cross and following him for.

Some days you ask, "Why me?" But the real question is "Why not you?" God has proven time after time that he can accomplish unlikely things in unlikely places through unlikely people when they are faithful.

Continue on, faithful one. The task is too big for you alone, so fall on Jesus and hold tight to the hands of others called into the breach.

Won't it be sweet on that day when our Savior embraces you and says, "Well, done!"

A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 
Ephesians 6.10

With Love,

An Urban Missionary


"Some want to live within the sound
Of church or chapel bell;
I want to run a rescue shop,
Within a yard of hell."
- C. T. Studd

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Freedom

The fireworks were so close overhead it felt like we were almost inside of them. People were whooping and yelling in excitement and then, over the portable speaker played the song "Good, Good Father." Amid the crackling booms and sparkling flashes and excited squeals from children, a few arms raised, responding in worship to
"You're a Good, Good Father
It's who you are, it's who you are, it's who you are
And I'm loved by you
It's who I am, it's who I am, it's who I am." 
I looked around at the families who had welcomed us into their celebration and was overwhelmed with what a good father the Lord is to His people. The men and women represented that evening came from all walks of life and experiences but they had come to know the goodness of their heavenly Father. There were men and women who had been bought back from the slavery of addiction, prisoners who had been released with purpose and calling, the lonely set firmly in the family of God, and broken families given new hope and healing. Some have been walking with the Lord for months, others years, all with their own stories of God's redemption on their lives and each playing a part in an urban movement here in Wichita, Kansas.

Our family is blessed to see God's great work in their lives and be a small part in what the Lord is doing in our city through these mighty men and women of God. Our son ran through the crowds and played and rough-housed with men, who in another context or from an outsiders-eye might give pause, and I felt nothing but joy at what he can learn from their brave surrenders to Christ and unashamed pursuit of God's glory in this city. They are taking the Gospel into places and into lives that many others dare not go in the city and the Kingdom is advancing as a result.

A few minutes later, the grand finale of fireworks burst forth in perfect timing with the next song on the playlist and the glorious sprays of color and light against the sky danced to

"You unravel me with a melody
You surround me with a song
of deliverance, from my enemies
Till all my fears are gone
I am no longer a slave to fear
I am a child of God
."

Celebration of freedom afforded us in this country is not insignificant, but it dwarfs in comparison to the freedom given to us in Christ. The knowledge and weight of this gift swirled through the group like the smoke from the fireworks, nearly as tangible.

It was a moment I will not soon forget. Hearts who once knew what it felt like to be enslaved to sin were unfurled before God, their bodies so small in silhouette against the the finale of fireworks, even smaller before our great God, yet joyful and fearless children standing in the freedom of their Father's love. That kind of freedom is contagious.

Monday, June 6, 2016

The Medlens on the Move

New things are again on the horizon for the Medlen family and they are leading us back to one of our favorite places...St. Louis!


God has brought our family on such a journey these past few years! There have been so many highs and lows and he has brought us through and into things we never anticipated. We have had to learn to trust the Lord in new ways and follow him to unexpected places and have been blessed to witness his Spirit move among the urban poor in new and exciting ways.  While our family and roles and ministry locations within World Impact have changed a lot over the past four years, our call and vision to empower urban leaders to plant healthy churches in the city and see communities transformed by the victory of Jesus has remained. And so, it is with excitement that our family is looking to our next chapter with World Impact back in St. Louis, Missouri, in January 2017!




We will be serving as Co-Directors of the St. Louis ministry efforts, working to deepen and expand our rich history of ministry contacts and partnerships. While the mission of World Impact has never wavered, we have charted new strategies and even larger visions for the ministry of World Impact under the leadership of our new president Rev. Efrem Smith. As our family returns to a place we so dearly love—a place with a long history of ministry—we hope to advance the Kingdom in a way that builds on that history and moves forward with the new opportunities and strategies our ministry offers.

Moving is never easy and our family will be sad to leave our ministry team here in Wichita and the many friends and co-laborers for the Kingdom that we have lived and served alongside these past years. However, we are also excited and honored to be able to return to a city that we love, and have never ceased having a burden for, and participate in God’s plans for St. Louis.