Waiting for the last tip of what to do when you're lost? You're already practicing it! Turns out the final step is Waiting! Tony Nasuta, a leader in search and rescue operations shared several steps at a recent Kiwanis meeting. (You can review them all here at extraChristy)

After stopping, looking around, looking for landmarks, calming down and sitting down, the last step to get found when you are lost is to: Wait.

When you are lost: Wait -

not yet -

see how hard that was? And that was less than second. Waiting like any helpful skill, takes practice. And being lost is an excellent time to practice waiting. Waiting might allow searchers to find you, conditions to improve, or inspiration to strike.

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to wait, (Now with More Resolution, January 2, 2006). It was one of the few I kept! People and situations helped me throughout the year to wait. I found waiting, willingly and not reluctantly, allowed me to notice more about the world around me, which is good to do when lost.

Part of our spiritual travel may include waiting. Use the time as a gift to look both inside and out, becoming aware of your outer surroundings and your inner environment. You may find you're right where you need to be, or discover a path you had overlooked either physically or spiritually. If you do, you aren't lost anymore!

Hope you take some time to wait today and are found. Amen.

Waiting For God

I pray to God-my life a prayer-
and wait for what he'll say and do.
My life's on the line before God, my Lord,
waiting and watching till morning,
waiting and watching till morning.

O Israel, wait and watch for God-
with God's arrival comes love,
with God's arrival comes generous redemption.
No doubt about it-he'll redeem Israel,
buy back Israel from captivity to sin.

-- Psalm 130:5-8 (The Message)

Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6.30-44; Luke 9.10-17; John 6.1-14

You all have miracles in your pocket. Whether it stays in your pocket or is released to bless you and others is up to you.

Feeding of the 5,000 is recorded in all four gospels, the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in the Bible. (Some of this message is based on the accounts in the other gospels.) Yet it almost didn’t happen! The disciples counseled Jesus not to try to feed the crowd, for there were too many and they only had five loaves and two fish. The disciples plan sounds like society’s counsel: Send away people—each one for him or herself—buy food in the market—we don’t have enough to share. Jesus instead resists the counsel and sits the crowd down, gathers them together, thanks God and shares what he has—and 5,000 are fed.

Now many folks have told this event as the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. That is the name of the church at the traditional site of the miracle. Yet, the Bible doesn’t say the loaves and fishes multiplied. It does say that starting with two fish and five loaves, a multitude of thousands were fed and there were baskets of leftovers. The miracle was the feeding of thousands, not necessarily the replication of bread and fish. I believe the miracle is much more profound than making a picnic lunch.

From Convenience to Commitment
There is a difference between a place to sit and SRO, standing room only. In my extraChristy devotion his week I write about how sit down makes the place your own, you become a part of the place and you have a place. Strangely it is one of the best things to do when you are lost, to sit down so people can find you. Miracles happen when people expect them and wait for them.

There is a change in a visit when someone accepts the invitation to come in and sit down. From a wavering, casual, ready to leave visitor to a friend or participant. It also commitments the one who invites as having interest and time in a relationship beyond just passing by each other toward his or her own goals.

Folks used to get possessive about their seating in church. I can’t point fingers because I sit at the same place every Sunday and get upset if someone is in my seat. Yet, for all the problems in claiming a pew, it is a evidence of commitment to being at worship services.

By sitting the crowd down, Jesus invites them to make a commitment to the gathering and makes a commitment to them. He has something to share with them, time for them, a place for them. To make a miracle, the first is to make the commitment to be where the miracle can occur. Miracles do not come to those who leave, but to those who commit, who accept the Lord’s invitation to be part of the miracle.

Several years ago, we needed a new roof. We didn’t have the $100,000 cost of the roof. We were able to do half of the roof and start saving for the other half. Good faithful folks stayed and paid to gather the money together for the roof. After years of waiting, a hailstorm came and rained down insurance money on us, some $47,000 to finish the roof replacement. Talk about an Act of God. It is almost as if God, said they have waited long enough, I’m going to finish it off for them and gave us the miracle we have been waiting and working towards for years.

Miracles come to the committed.

From Commerce to Community
The disciples’ solution to the hungry crowd was to send them away to buy food for themselves. Individuals going their own way to make sure their own needs were met. In Mark’s and Luke’s account of the miracle, Jesus directs the crowd not only to sit down but to sit in groups. Rather than leaving and going out as individuals to solve their hunger, Jesus directs them to stay in groups. A turn from relying on commerce to buy solutions to our problems one by one, Jesus urges us to come together in groups.

I’m teaching the Friendship class this month to give Rev. Flower a break. I’m learning it is much more than a lesson. The group sings and prays together, keeping each others joys and needs in common. They also contribute to an offering for mission reaching out to yet more groups. It is the same in any group, The Luke 15 Men’s Bible Study to Presbyterian women to youth group. Members do more together than solve the most pressing individual need. Jesus knew that for miracles beyond the immediate, folks have to be together.

I was at a Kiwanis district meeting Monday. The next head of Ohio Kiwanis asked the group, “How many of you can run your business at a deficit?” I was the only one to raise my hand. As a congregation we are more than making an efficient product at a fair price. We trade in community and not commerce. We don’t give a list of restaurants to grieving families here for a funeral; the deacons and others bring food and prepare a meal for them. We provide for miracles in community not by commerce. If you want miracles, you cannot buy them at the market, you must find them in community with others.

From Competition to Connection
In Mark’s account the disciples looked around and found five loaves and two fish, which they decided were nothing in the face of thousands of hungry people. Jesus didn’t stop at looking around, he looked up and thanked God for what was given. For miracles to come, we have to turn from competition over scarcity to thankfulness for God’s abundance grace. When we believe there isn’t enough for everyone, we compete. When we decide our needs are met, or wants are fulfilled, we thank God. Jesus saw there was no need to compete for the small amount of food, for with a connection to God there was enough to give thanks.

On her last game as a senior at Western Oregon in the a championship game Sara Tucholsky hit her first ever home run, but running past first base, she tore her ACL and had to crawl back to first base. None of her teammates could help her and the umpire said putting someone in would count the home run as a single. So Mallory Holtman and Liz Wallace of Central Washington, the opposing team, carried Sara around the bases so she could have her home run count. Where homeruns are usually greeted with cheers and screams, the crowd was moved to tears at youth who went from competition to connection. (there is video on YouTube)

For miracles to happen, we have to look beyond competing with each other to get our fair share to thankfulness for our connections with God and each other.

From Calculation to Congruence
In the NIV version of John gospel, there is a great quote from the disciple, Philip, "Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!" Jesus ignores the calculation and goes ahead and shares the food with the disciples and directs them to continue the sharing. Despite Philip’s earnest and accurate calculation, everyone is fed and there are baskets left over.

The cost of raising a child is over a quarter of a million dollars, there is some range, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture on the basis of studying 5,000 households, says it is above $15,000 a year to raise a child. If calculation was all we depended on, no one would be a parent. Commitment to a quarter of a million dollars! Ridiculous.

But Jesus calls us to miracles that come when we go beyond calculation and act in congruence with what we believe. Couples do that when they believe they should and want to be parents and Jesus did that when he share what he had and directed his disciples to do the same, even though the calculations didn’t support the act, acting in congruence of what he believe and taught demanded it.

We did that here this summer, when the calculations told us we only had 5 or 6 kids that could come to Vacation Bible School, we went ahead and held one anyway and welcome up to 50 kids to the church and to the lessons of being God’s helper on this earth. A miracle of multiplication that was possible because we did count on what we had, but counted on God.

When we act out our faith, follow where Jesus directs instead being ruled by cold calculations, we can see miracles, the feeding of thousands with a few loaves and fishes or the raising of a child in a loving home.

Conclusion
Technical fixes are easy. I fix computers because it is a puzzle that has an answer, unlike the human drama and challenges I work on as a pastor. Feeding 5,000, effectively using food supply, is a problem of logistics compared to the miracle I think happened that day.

People moved from their own convenience to commitment to people and Jesus’ way.
People moved from reliance on commerce to trusting enough to become a community.
People turned from individual competition in scarcity to cooperation and connection with others.
People looked beyond the calculations and brought themselves in congruence with Jesus trusting in the abundance of God.

I believe the food was in the pockets of the people. The miracle, a mighty one, was getting them to trust each other and God enough to take their hands out of the pockets and participate in a miracle where all our fed with plenty left over. We don’t have to look for holy baskets or multiplying fish for miracles, for miracles are in our pockets.

Advanced permission is given for non-profit, for-prophet use of the above at no charge as long as it is reproduced unedited with notices and copyright intact. Written copies are provided after they are preached as a courtesy for the personal, private, appreciative use of the congregation of Goodyear Heights Presbyterian Church, their families and friends to support the ministry of Goodyear Heights Presbyterian Church and its pastor the Rev. J. Christy Ramsey. Join us Sundays! 8:15 Traditional Worship and 10:15 Blended. Mingle in our Gathering Room between services and take advantage of Christian Education opportunities.

Sit Down is more than a canine command and a guard against classroom chaos. It is a good thing to do when you are lost! Tony Nasuta, a leader in search and rescue operations shared several steps at a recent Kiwanis meeting. (You can review them all here at www.extrachristy.com)

After stopping, looking around, looking for landmarks, and calming down, the fifth step to get found when you are lost is to: Sit Down.

If you are sitting down, you are not going to wander deeper into the woods, further from home, and away from rescuers. When you sit down, you have found a place and stopped being lost for the moment.

A minister arrived at a meeting late. Asked about his tardiness, he said he got lost, and every time he gets lost he stops in a diner, sits down and has a cup of coffee. He claimed that when he gets up, he isn't lost anymore. Sitting down can make a strange place your place, a little piece of found in a world of lost. Maybe that is all we can do and that's enough.

Hope you get to sit down and find yourself today. Amen.

Sitting Down Brings Help

Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, 'I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.' The disciples said to him, 'Where are we to get enough bread in the desert to feed so great a crowd?' Jesus asked them, 'How many loaves have you?' They said, 'Seven, and a few small fish.' Then ordering the crowd to sit down on the ground, he took the seven loaves and the fish; and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all of them ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. Those who had eaten were four thousand men, besides women and children. -- Matthew 15:32-38 NRSV

What should you do when you are lost? Tony Nasuta, a leader in search and rescue operations shared several steps at a recent Kiwanis meeting.

After stopping, looking around, and looking for landmarks, the fourth step to get found when you are lost is to: Calm Down.

Douglas Adams fictional intergalactic handbook Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy had printed on its front cover the words: "Don't Panic" Good advice for strangers in a strange land!

There are many verses in the Bible recommending calmness, Psalm 46:10 can be read as a command, "Calm down!" Yoga and all meditation disciplines both spiritual and secular, urge calmness as a way to peace and clarity

Calmness will open up other pathways and possibilities in your life that are hidden by the tunnel vision and frenzied distractions brought on by stress and panic. Calmness can also help you find other people and let other people close enough to find you.

Hope you find a calm place today. Amen.

Calm Comes from Learning

God is our mighty fortress, always ready to help in times of trouble.And so, we won't be afraid! Let the earth tremble and the mountains tumble into the deepest sea.Let the ocean roar and foam,and its raging waves shake the mountains.A river and its streams bring joy to the city, which is the sacred home of God Most High. God is in that city, and it won't be shaken. He will help it at dawn.

Nations rage! Kingdoms fall! But at the voice of God the earth itself melts. The LORD All-Powerful is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress.Come! See the fearsome things the LORD has done on earth.God brings wars to an end all over the world. He breaks the arrows, shatters the spears, and burns the shields. Our God says, "Calm down, and learn that I am God! All nations on earth will honor me." The LORD All-Powerful is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. -- Psalm 46 CEV

What should you do when you are lost? Tony Nasuta, a leader in search and rescue operations shared several steps at a recent Kiwanis meeting. (You can review them all at www.extrachristy.com)

After stopping, the second step to get found when you are lost is: Look Around. When you are lost, if you only look where your going, you'll miss where you should be.

Adam Sandler in the 2006 movie, Click! tries to solve being lost by using a magical remote control. He fast forwards his life, skipping everything looking for the pot of gold at the end, ignoring his parents, wife, children, friends; until he finds out he had lost his whole life.

Only when he rewinds his life does he look around and see the love he lost by focusing exclusively on the next deadline, the next job, the next promotion. Loved ones surrounded him, but while he was on "fast forward" they were just a distracting blur. He finally looks around, and sees the love that he lost. Tragically his last words are: Family comes first.

If you are lost, look around. There is a different way waiting. A way out. A way home. A way to love.

Look, God is All Around

Where could I go to escape from your Spirit or from your sight?

If I were to climb up to the highest heavens, you would be there.

If I were to dig down to the world of the dead you would also be there.

Suppose I had wings like the dawning day and flew across the ocean. Even then your powerful arm would guide and protect me.

Or suppose I said, "I'll hide in the dark until night comes to cover me over." But you see in the dark because daylight and dark are all the same to you. - Psalm 139:7-12 CEV