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In early October of 2006 there was a horrific shooting at a one room Amish school house in Nickel Mines Pennsylvania…killing 5 and wounding 5 more young girls. I think most of us probably remember that event. What I have never been able to purge from my mind is the reaction of the Amish families that were directly involved and the Amish community as a whole.

You see, more than half of those that attended the killers funeral were Amish. And as the money and gifts poured in from all over…the Amish included the killer’s widow and her children in the distribution of the gifts. How do they forgive like that?

So when I ran across this book, Amish Peace, at the first of the summer…it made the top of my reading list.

What a wonderful book and what unique people. The book explores how the Amish view time, money, community, forgiveness and the sovereignity of God. The author, Suzanne Woods Fisher, spent days with them in order to learn their stories so she could share them with us. The attraction that I now have for the Amish lifestyle is summed up in one word…simplicity.

Why is it so hard to live a simple life?

The Amish personify simple living! Here are a few notes on why/how from the book:

• to only live with the things that they really use…and to treasure them.
• Amish farms have no more than 80 tillable acres…on purpose.
• each church district is kept to roughly 20 to 30 families…on purpose.
• their houses and barns are spartan -like; spacious and uncluttered.
• simple dress and grooming…so not to promote pride or status.
• possessions are guided by function and practicality…not by the latest style or trend.
• money is to help others.
• not less choice…but they choose less.

I encourage you to grab the book…the stories read kind of as a devotional. I am not quite ready to become Amish, but I would love to begin living out some of the Amish ways.

The book is full of Amish proverbs and this one grabbed me…“Live simple, so others may simply live”

Share your experience with the Amish in the comment section below or get the book and let me know what you think.

I have never really been that good at confession.

Always found it odd to see people in the movies go to confession in the catholic church. That was usually the time in the movie that the we learned some juicy details about the plot or began to unravel the mystery of the story. Also wondered…what did the priest do with all that information? I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that priests are the writers of some our current sitcoms. Do people really confess everything to the priest in those little closets?

A couple of weeks back I started leading kind of an impromptu Wednesday night service for our non-denominational church during this season of Lent. Last week I included a corporate confession of our sins during the service, which I stole from my new favorite book The Book of Common Prayer. This is what we said…

Most merciful God,
we confess that we have sinned against thee
in thought, word, and deed,
by what we have done,
and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved thee with our whole heart;
we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We are truly sorry and we earnestly repent.
For the sake of thy Son Jesus Christ,
have mercy on us and forgive us;
that we may delight in thy will,
and walk in thy ways,
to the glory of thy Name. Amen.

 Anyway, as I have dug into this Lenten process…I have realized it is so much more than giving up something like junk food or chocolate. Saying and thinking through the words of that confession woke me up. Evidently it moved a few others because last week one of them sent me an article that I need to share with you. This is an excerpt from that article written by Ruth Haley Barton (the whole article)…

“Confession is good for the soul—and everyone around us. Without the ability to face ourselves honestly and confess not only our sin and bad behaviors but also the shadow that drives them, we become dangerous to one another in the human community. We project our own darkness onto others rather than dealing with the darkness within ourselves and the weight of that is too much for any of us to bear.  Lent is the season for coming out of the shadows and coming clean.”

That makes a lot sense to me. It is extremely easy to see how the sins of others does damage to the innocent in their lives and how for some reason they don’t see it. Men seem to have a real knack for this. Not that women don’t sin or have a need to confess…I just see it easier in the men. More than likely because I think like they do. I know there are a number of different beliefs on how you are to confess and who you are to confess to…not really wanting to debate that here.  

Just want to say…I am beginning to see the sin in my life, and feel the need to confess. Do you?

If you were around Christian music in the late 80′s and early 90′s then you know the name Rich Mullins. If you went to almost any protestant church in last 30 years then you know or have heard one or both of these two songs…”Awesome God” and “Step by Step“. Rich was an insightful songwriter and a wonderful musician who’s life was tragically cut short by a car wreck in September 1997. Rich lived what he believed and that is what has drawn me back to him these past couple of months.  I ran across this video of him on YouTube. I keep going back to it and listening to what he says in it. Funny part is it is not him singing…it’s him talking. I find that I keep going back to it and playing it again. I want to invite you to listen to it and see if it touches your heart too. It was shot at a concert of his in Lufkin, Texas shortly before he passed. It is about a 9 minute video…if you don’t have 9 minutes then come back later when you do…it’s worth it. 

This is the part I can’t get loose from…

“Jesus said whatever you do to the least of these my brothers you’ve done it to me. And this is what I’ve come to think.

That if I want to identify fully with Jesus Christ, who I claim to be my savior and Lord, the best way that I can do that is to identify with the poor.

This I know will go against the teachings of all the popular evangelical preachers. But they’re just wrong. They’re not bad, they’re just wrong. Christianity is not about building an absolutely secure little niche in the world where you can live with your perfect little wife and your perfect little children in a beautiful little house where you have no gays or minority groups anywhere near you. Christianity is about learning to love like Jesus loved and Jesus loved the poor and Jesus loved the broken….”

Do you believe that?

If you believe it do you live like you do?

Seems as though there is a character gap in our leaders today. Well actually there has ALWAYS been a character gap in most of our leaders. The position, power, money and or stress always seems to compromise men in women whenever they appear to have it all together. Spiritual leaders are not immune to this reality. Reggie McNeal does a wonderful job in this book of giving us few guidelines (disciplines) that will help all of us stay true to our self and to our followers.

Reggie states that humility and popularity can coexist. Because great leaders keep the perspective of the true source of their strength. We all have known a handful of “great” leaders in a sea of “good” leaders. Reggie’s wisdom makes it very clear that great leadership is earned. It is not a gift…it is a reward. The first three disciplines revolve around the leaders self-awareness, self-management and self-development. While the final four disciplines provide clarity for the leader in the areas of mission, decision making, belonging and aloneness.

 If you are a spiritual leader or coach and you have the desire to have a lasting impact on the people around you, you should read and reread PRACTICING GREATNESS.