In the meantime, all of my action will be in social networks. My current writing is only available on Facebook, though that will change as I develop my new websites. If you wish to follow me, http://jeffreylong.net will redirect you to my Google Profile which includes links to my profile pages on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.

Thanks for visiting. I hope to see you soon in these other venues.

Jeff

However, within a few years, I started going to Tall Timber Presbyterian church camp. I didn’t feel the same loneliness. I don’t know if it was just because I was older, or because I was a more seasoned camper. But the most significant difference between the two camps was that at Tall Timber, I wasn’t alone spiritually. I was with other Christians. Doing Christian things.

It is part of God’s design that we should not live alone.

From Genesis to Revelation, Christianity is a social religion. God said “It is not good for the man to be alone.”

We need people. We are energized by our relationships. They give our life meaning. We realize that our life is not simply about us and our needs but it is about something bigger… life is about being in community. Sharing experiences in common.

As we continue the story of Elijah in 1Kings 19:13 we find Elijah feeling very alone.

As a consequence of his calling as a prophet Elijah felt very isolated. A prophet’s job is to call people to turn away from their indulgences back to serving Yahweh. Sometimes the prophet’s audience turns toward the message. But most often,  people turn away, leaving the prophet alone in the world.

If you have a Bible, turn to 1Kings 19:13

13 And Elijah pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.      Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 14 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

Elijah said: “Look God, I am the only one left! Everyone has abandoned you and started worshiping Baal. They broke the altars erected to you and now they’ve killed the prophets. It’s just me now, and I’m

lonely.”

When I preach in August, I’m going to talk about depression and how one of the Bible’s stories about Elijah describes some God-ordained means for dealing with depression. But for now, we are going to focus on one aspect of depression which is isolation.. Isolation can be a symptom of depression.

Depressed people often start believing the lie that their friends don’t care about them. As a result, they purposely keep to themselves and eventually become a self-fulfilling prophecy, all alone.

In Elijah’s depression he had come to believe that the entire nation had turned away from God. Under this faulty assumption he hid himself away in a cave. Away from the very people who could have supported him.

But more often then not, we are never as alone as we believe we are. While most had turned from God, there was still a remnant. And so one of the ways that God ministers to us in our loneliness is to open our eyes to see that we are actually not alone.

Picking it up at verse 15 we read “The LORD said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. 16 Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. 17 Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. 18 Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him.”

God told him “Look, Hazael, Jehu and Elisha… they are still faithful to me. And there are 7000 people out there whose knees have not bowed down to Baal. Not only that, I have someone special for you to meet. His name is Elisha and he is going to work alongside you. You will have the opportunity to mentor him so that when you are gone, there will be someone to carry on your work.

Today you might find yourself in the position I was at camp. Even though you are surrounded with people you still feel alone. Perhaps you wrestle with depression and isolate yourself away, making people prove their love for you by waiting for them to take the initiative.

You need to hear the words of God to Elijah. You aren’t alone. There is a community of believers here that are available to walk beside you in both the joys and trials that life brings you. We do not have to suffer in loneliness as Elijah did.

God collects His people into churches so that they can give each other mutual help, contribute each of their gifts, talents, and passions to produce a whole that is greater then the sum of its parts, and together benefit from a common reward.

Hebrews 10:25 instructs us to ”not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing.

God says it is not enough to have your morning devotions at home alone. You need to meet regularly with other believers or else you will find yourself like Elijah thinking “I am all alone.” This might mean meeting Sunday morning in a church service like ours. But you actually don’t need to meet in the traditional matter that we do with a set order of worship and building. You might be meeting in a house with 10 other Christians in the middle of the week. It might even just be two or three gathered together. No matter what the setting, we need to not give up meeting together. We need to be around each other or else we will feel all alone as Christians.

But not only are there are Christians in Menno to support you, there are also Christians in Ritzville and Moses Lake. Grant and Adams County.

My life has been enriched this year by a very unique church situation. When we moved back to Moses Lake I knew I wanted my family to be in a church inside the city limits of Moses Lake so that we would be living with and ministering to our neighbors and coworkers. Eventually I found Journey church which meets in the Fairchild Cinema. But I also knew that I wanted my family to grow up knowing you all because you have become an adopted family for us. And I have chosen to be a Mennonite regardless of the denomination of the congregation we worship and minister in weekly. But then I was hired to play for the worship service of Living word Lutheran church.

What I have experienced from this is that there are opportunities for community, to minister, and to be ministered to by fellowshipping with a broader group of Christians then those that we worship with on Sunday morning.

It is also important for us to remember that the church is not our only recourse against loneliness. Psalm 68:6 says God sets the lonely in families. Whether your family is Christian or not, God has ordained the family to be a place of love. For most people there is unconditional love from mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters. From our extended families of grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins. One of the hazards of living so far away from Deana’s and my families was that we didn’t have the immediate support available to us that we had when we lived in the same town. So when families are apart it is important to make use of the technology we have been blessed with, whether the phone, email, chat, or text. Brittany sends me pictures of my Grandson Luke on my cell phone. And I can video conference with Alexis on Skype.

Finally, while I’ve been talking about how we need to _seek out_ others to avoid the loneliness that crippled Elijah each of us needs to also be challenged to be that loving person that others can go to. Some people have found their experience of churches to be toxic. Church hasn’t been a safe place for them. They’ve felt judged or found it’s members at war with each other. For these people maybe you need to be just the second person of two or three gathered so that someone who believes the church is toxic can have a community of believers to meet with. To encourage that person. To pray with them. To share a meaningful passage of the Bible with them. To listen to them. To be ministered to by them. We need to not only go to church, we need to be the church for those with a negative experience with the church.

Other people have grown up in toxic families. Their parents area either distant or abusive. Their siblings are unsupportive. I believe that when Psalm 68 says “God sets the lonely in families” I believe it is also an invitation to us to be a family to those without one. For better or worse, our home has always been open to children and teens with troubles in their family. Sometimes it has meant them living with us for a short or extended time. The first time it was a teen whose mom had died of cancer. Later it was children of a neglectful mother. In other cases it has just been providing a loving place for them to hang out during the day. But God has continued to give us the opportunity to minister to those whose families are not there for them 100%.

So, to combat loneliness we need to be sure and take the time to gather with other Christians. Take the time to be with your family. And don’t isolate yourself to just your church or family. Take the time to _be_ the church for those without one and _be_ a family for those without.

In the Winter 2000 issue of Whole Earth Magazine I came across an article about Long Now Foundation’s work to create a 10,000 year clock. (shown above)

The following comment in the article caught my eye. “Danny Hillis’s idea was that by slowing down the usual speedy movements of a clock, he hoped to slow us down and have us think about the long term. The purpose of a clock that runs for 10,000 years is to encourage us to create things that require 10,000 years to measure. A great civilization for instance.”

This intrigued me because it stands in stark contrast to the pessimism for the future of civilization found in the pop-culture church today. Apocalypticism has been a popular theme throughout history, as showcased through Christian History Magazine’s excellent issue on the topic. Thus the appeal of such books as “Left Behind” should be no surprise.

But it is my contention that such hopelessness about the future is not only unbiblical, but does great harm to the ministry of the church. Yes, Jesus will return, as is told in the scripture. And yes, he judges and will judge individuals and governments for their complicity in sin. But you can not find one text in the Bible that will say He is coming today, or tomorrow, or in a decade, or a century or a millenia. Only that He will return soon, for which we have no calendar to measure. So, our calling is readiness, rather then speculation.

The unfortunate biproduct of apocalyptic thinking is a lack of hope for what the Holy Spirit will do through the Church today. In his book “Learned Optimism,” Martin Seligman documented his research that both animals and humans responded in the same manner to helpless situations. They gave up trying to change their environment. I believe that the same happens to congregations when they believe that they are helpless to change the world around them.

By contrast, I believe that we are called to live hopeful of the work that the Holy Spirit wants to do through us as believers and through our congregations.

For further Biblical study on the pervasiveness of the church and the hope that it brings us, I suggest looking through the cross references of Matthew 16:18

Also, the following two short and excellent articles, Cultural Pessimism and Cultural Optimism are excellent reading to further grasp both what destruction is done through this hopeless thinking, and a further understanding of what the Holy Spirit can do through the Church.

And so, rather then limiting ourselves to the end-times apocalypticism prevelent today, I call upon the Church to wonder at what a culture could come if we were to live expecting His soon return, while simultaneously wondering at what the Holy Spirit could do through us through 10,000 years.

I look forward to your thoughts and feedback.

But there is a cheaper alternative if all you want to do is back up your pictures and documents: Mozy. http://www.mozy.com. You can sign up for a free account and get 2gigs of backup for free. It’s a little program that runs in the background and pays attention to folders you’ve told it to back up. When you put something new there, it automatically backs it up to your online account. It works on both Mac and PC. You can just tell it to back up your documents folder and leave it alone. I also keep a backup of my keychain which is where all my passwords and serial numbers for software goes. If anything bad happens, it’s a piece of cake to restore. 

I still recommend a thorough backup strategy. I have my itunes library backed up to DVD. A bootable backup of my entire hard drive. And you should also have an offsite backup. I’ve heard of someone who backs up to DVD and mails it to his Mom. Or like me, you could get a a paid account to Mozy that is unlimited, so my applications, music library, documents and pictures are backed up there. That way if your house catches fire and your DVD’s and hard drive are destroyed, you still have your files. 

Like I keep saying to my friends, there are two types of people in the world: those whose hard drives have failed and those whose hard drives w-i-l-l fail. Don’t be like my friend who just lost her invaluable photos. Get a mozy account and get to backing up. 

I’ve been on a path to try and teach my kids what I consider to be the essential bands to know to be culturally literate. U2. Journey. They already know Prince. The Beatles. The Beach Boys. I was trying to think who else to add. Madonna. Probably the Rolling Stones. The Grateful Dead. Phish. Of course, this is only rock, and only from the 60′s on. Credence Clearwater Revival probably belongs on the list.  Bob Dylan too, though I’m actually unfamiliar with his music.

Aesthetically, I should make them familiar with Jazz and Classical too. Bill Evans. Pat Metheny Group. John Coltraine. Miles Davis. Mozart. Handel. 

Who would you add? Post in the comments. And if anyone says “Weird Al,” you are getting flamed

True Vocation http://www.inwardoutward.org/?p=658

by Parker Palmer

Our deepest calling is to grow into our own authentic selfhood, whether or not it conforms to some image of who we ought to be. As we do so, we will not only find the joy that every human being seeks we will also find our path of authentic service in the world. True vocation joins self and service, as Frederick Buechner asserts when he defines vocation as ‘the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.’ Buechner’s definition starts with the self and moves toward the needs of the world: it begins, wisely, where vocation begins not in what the world needs (which is everything), but in the nature of the human self, in what brings the self joy, the deep joy of knowing that we are here on earth to be the gifts that God created. Source: Let Your Life Speak

I think this sentiment is laudable. It reminds me of the old saying “do what you love and the money will follow.” But my experience so far has been that pursuing your true calling is really hard work and fraught with many obstacles. And I haven’t met many people who feel like they have arrived. For most of us life keeps us busy paying bills, raising our children and repairing our houses.

I think that where sentiments like this get us hung up is that they seem to point us to a finish line to cross. Palmer seems to be saying that “authentic selfhood” is a destination to be reached. But some of the greatest despair I’ve felt was when I looked forward to a hoped for future only to have it dashed on the rocks of reality.

I think a better alternative is to ask the simple question “What’s the next action?” This comes from David Allen’s “Getting Things Done.” Instead of looking for the finish line, focus on taking the next step along the path. Allen calls this horizontal thinking as opposed to the visionary work of vertical thinking. Of course, it’s important to pause now and then to make sure that we have the right destination in mind. Otherwise, you’ll be on the wrong path and taking the wrong next actions. But I think the majority of the work that needs to be done is in answering the question “What should I do next?”

So I think our response to Palmer should not be “What will it look like when I have arrived at that authentic selfhood.” Nor should we expect the money to follow when we do what we love. Instead we should ask “What can I do right now to be true to myself. What can I do this week that I love.” I think that we may never arrive at a destination we imagined. But I think there will be more joy on the journey.

This has left me with the germ of a thought that I would like to research more. Why are we so fascinated by end-times prophecies and speculation. I don’t really know where to go to research the psychology behind it. So I thought I’d ask you, my readers. What do end-times prophecies mean to you? What meaning do they give to your life? Why is studying them important to you? Do prophecies help you by making the future more tangible? Do they make you hopeful or afraid?

I hope to hear from you.

Recently I noticed that there seemed to be an awful lot of these places. So yesterday I drove down the boulevard and counted. I discovered there is a whopping 13 of these businesses in just two miles.

I think that this is a sign of the economy we live in. The cost of my yogurt, milk and gas have gone up, but my earning power has not.

A couple months ago I was with my wife at a debate contest. We sat down at the judges lounge with an acquaintance of hers who travels with the team. I sat uncomfortably through his demeaning talk about the poor clients in his social work and how they take advantage of the system. But then he decided to minimize the pain of the recession by comparing it to the depression. I blew up. People who are comfortable don’t understand the pain lower income people are in as the economy turns south. They don’t understand that the working poor are becoming trapped by the cycle of credit at these predatory lending businesses. 13 of them!

There but by the grace of God go I. These institutions are preying on the working poor. We need to show more compassion for those who are working hard but having trouble making ends meet. I know I’m talking about myself here. But I have also fallen prey to the lure of judging the poor, thinking they are getting a free ride by the system. That they have control of their situation if they would only work hard. It’s not as easy as that. Poverty is a complicated problem. And part of the equation now are these yellow buildings with red trim offering temporary relief at a high interest rate.