alexschwindt.com

who I am, not what I do

So this blog is supposed to be about life, art and God, and I'm realizing I haven't been writing much about the journey lately.  The past year has been difficult for me in some ways.  Any time you step back from something you love (in my case being a worship arts pastor) there are bound to be some echos of longing for your old life.  The great thing is that God never stops growing us right in the hear and now.

I am more than what I do for for a living.  Finding the living, breathing reality of that truth has been extraordinary.

the most important question

Over the last ten years I've had the chance to talk with numerous churches and leaders about reaching my generation.  I used to tell them that postmoderns weren't interested in what you could prove was true; they wanted to know what works for you.  It think John Burke has gotten closer to the real heart of the question being asked.  He puts it this way -

Postmoderns don't care about what's 'true'; they question they are asking is 'Do I want to be like you?'

Does that question rattle you?  It definitely messes with me a little, mostly because I think it's right on the money.  And so I have to ask if there's anything about me that would stand in the way of sharing the Gospel with my life . . .

kingdom come at starbucks

So I was at Starbucks this afternoon.  The woman making my coffee behind the counter was someone I'd recently struck up a friendship with.  She asked me what I was up to, and I told her I was taking a couple of hours to read and pray about church planting.  As she handed me my coffee she pointed out another patron in the shop who was an Episcopal priest launching a new church plant himself. 

Of course, this was just too interesting of an opportunity to pass up.  I pulled up a nearby chair and began to engage the priest in an interesting and animated conversation about church planting and Overland Park.  Maybe ten minutes later another person sitting nearby had joined out conversation.  A couple of minutes after that two high school juniors joined our conversation to tell us about the Saturday bible study they had started last weekend.  Before the conversation was over, even one of the baristas had taken their break, grabbed a coffee and pulled up a seat to tell us about his church experience.  It was the Kingdom come, right there at Starbucks on a Thursday afternoon. 

So here's the encouragement for today - next time you're hanging out at your favorite coffee shop (like "It's a Grind" on 151st), make sure to keep your eyes and ears open.  I know it's awesome to power up the laptop, fire up iTunes, pop on some great headphones, left-hand clutch a double-mocha chai and get lost in a good book.  That's some goodness, but it's not worth missing a Kingdom moment.  So heads up!

His Eyes Are On the Sparrow (i.e "How Dare He Pay Attention to Someone Else!?!")

"Cast all your cares on Him, for He cares for you . . ."  - I Peter 5:7

One of the things I'm coming to realize in my life is that I'm not very good at this.  And unfortunately, I'm pretty sure I know why. 

Right now, my life is pretty schizophrenic.  One the one hand, a lot of my life is going well - great family, great job, daily bread, etc.  On the other hand, it's going to take me a long time to to dig my way out of some pretty awful stuff that happened to me this summer.  The duality definitely makes for some interesting quite times.

I know that I can trust God to take care of the mess, but I'm having a hard time laying my anxieties in God's hands because deep down I only want God's best for me and me only.  I'm afraid that if I don't keep my eye on the ball God may go off and allow me to suffer for a little while for the benefit of someone else.  And we can't have that . . .

Finding that kind of narcissism in myself is not comforting.  But He cares for me anyway.