Life at the intersection of Grace and Growth.
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Welcome to a whole new thing! A Podcast called The Apprenticeship Way.
Are you hooked on Jesus, but maybe you’ve struggled to see real growth or transformation in the “church activities routine” that you were handed by the church? Do you suspect there must be something more, something deeper? I know how that feels–and it’s exactly the reason for this podcast and the journey we’ll be going on.
I love this season of the year here in Portland. Blue sky sunshine days begin to break through the winter veil of wet greyness we’ve lived beneath for months on end. When those days happen… man, they are glorious!
With those days of sun and the change in temperature, all the living things in our yard have decided it must be spring. Flowering trees have bloomed. Grass is growing. Animals are out and about. All the signs are there.
What’s happening outside mirrors what’s been going on inside of me. My season is changing. I’m in the last couple of weeks with one side-job that I’ve had for three years. The job has outgrown the time I have to give it, and I am ready to hand it off to someone else. As that transition nears, I can feel the newness bubbling up inside of me. Have you ever felt that? It’s good, right?
But seeing the signs of spring means that you’ve just been in winter. That’s been true in my front yard. It’s been true for my heart as well.
Almost three months ago I did something I’ve never done before. I made a difficult and terrifying choice to stop doing some things I love.
There were clues all along the way. They meant nothing to me when they happened, but looking back now they stick out like flashing fluorescent signs.
There was the day I shared my college plans with a friend. I’d been accepted to my dream program at a great school. I said I was “really excited to go.” He burst out laughing. A little hurt, I asked why he was laughing at me. He said, “In my whole life I’ve never heard someone say they were excited while looking and sounding so completely not excited at the same time.”
There was the college friend who called me a “pod person,” because she could never get a rise out of me.
And then there was the recurring complaint from friends and eventually, from my wife. I felt fine in our relationships. I thought things were mostly good, but they would say I felt distant to them, or that they couldn’t get to me, or that I wasn’t hearing them. They wondered if we were really even friends.
At the time, I didn’t think any of this really mattered. I was strong. I was able to handle a crisis. I was a clear-headed thinker and problem solver. These complaints were their problem, right?
There’s a very simple way to help others grow spiritually. I’m going to tell you how after a quick story.
Recently my phone buzzed with a notification, and I found this message: “Hey man, I’m just about 45 pages into your book, but I am convinced this is a God-given piece of provision for me as I slowly tiptoe into pastoring. Thank you for entrusting me with your work.”
So many feelings rushed in. Excitement and gratitude. Awe. I glanced at my shelves filled with books. Some of them walked me through a crisis. Others shaped my thinking about God or nudged me toward a healthier life. Pages full of impact. My words were doing this for someone else. Simply amazing.
Then I had a thought. Every one of those books was in my life because someone told me about it.
Busyness is the enemy of spiritual growth. Busyness is a trap, mindset, a wall of self-defense, an addiction. Busyness is about lack of focus and confused priorities. At least that’s what they say. Surely there’s something true about all of that.
But what about those times when life is just full, full of commitments and obligations and unexpected requirements that you can’t do anything about? What then?
Is it just impossible for a single mom with three kids to be spiritual? Is it an unreasonable expectation for a guy trying to take care of his family, support a hurting friend, and run a business to have a real and on-going relationship with God? Is the only answer to go on a retreat?
