Aaron Massey

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“You know I actually think(!)….” I can’t remember what he said because I was so focused on his blatant interruption when she was in the middle of her sentence.

He was a middle-aged man who worked, had a wife and kids, and was going back to school. After we listened to him gripe about spending time with his family, his face showed a glimpse of enthusiasm talking about his ice-skiing group in central Texas. Then back to his sullen life.

This was our first year at Mary Hardin-Baylor and she was telling a story to me and him in the Sub. He didn’t care what she had to say—loudly barging in to cut her off and say something unworthy of memory.

We hate it when this happens to us, but we ignore it when we do it to others. And that is why Jesus resurrected: so that you would close your mouth, quiet your brain, and pay attention to the one who speaks.

His resurrection produced the new creation. The new creation plan includes a humanity united in purpose and renewed in heart: to serve rather than be served and to hear rather than be heard.

We intrude into others’ used air space because what we have to say is more important than what the other is saying.

Jesus’ resurrection means you don’t have to take part in “survival of the loudest.” Because you don’t have to be heard.

The world is not responsible to shape itself to your words nor is it reliable to care about your problems. We would all agree with this, but rarely live like it. Yet when you interrupt, count on them tuning you out.

The resurrection reveals that the world bends to God’s desires and Jesus reveals that God is a good God who cares about you.

So be assured that Jesus hears you.

He’s alive. He won’t tune you out, obnoxiously interrupt, or mock you. His eyes are fixed on yours. His mind is quiet to hear. And he has already said the words, “I am the resurrection.”  Life changing.

Listening is one of the easiest ways to set aside your agenda and love others—just as Jesus has loved you.

Covey’s teaching is the best: when you converse with people, focus on what they say and how they feel about what they say. Withhold verbal prodding and advice giving.

Start there and see what happens to your relationships.

Thanks,

Aaron

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“Ya, I was so busy today I forgot to schedule dinner.” He said this with a grin on his face rushing to his next event.

It was our second year of college and he stuffed his schedule full. I remember thinking, “I wish I was busy and important enough to forget dinner.” Not anymore.

Busyness is an emblem of pride for many. Our subtle complaints can be like raising our hands high and shouting, “Look how much the world needs me!”

It feels good to be wanted and busyness makes you feel that way.  But it’s destructive to fuel your self-importance by over-packing your datebook.

Plus, you don’t have to. Jesus resurrected. That is the most important event on your calendar.

His resurrection invites you to participate in his agenda for the world. And that agenda is to restore humanity to its proper form. That form includes the right amount of doing AND BEING.

Our culture praises those who do more than those who BE. So we learn to value excessive doing, going, and accomplishing while neglecting the essential aspect of BEING.

By neglecting couches, quiet, and contemplation, you miss out on your humanity. It’s ok to take time to stop.

We were created to have BEING in our schedule. You can’t experience the good life without making time for this do-less, go-less, and accomplish-less endeavor.

His resurrection confirms it. You can rest in the fact that you can’t avoid death, resurrect yourself, or sustain the world.  Jesus tasted death to defeat it.

He proved that he is the renewer of the world and its sustainer. This means the world will be ok without you.

Only by acknowledging this vital reality can you achieve balance and experience the good life according to the resurrection.

By receiving your self-importance from Jesus, you can respond to God and serve the world rather than respond to the world to serve your self-importance.

The distinction is slight, but crucial.

So take time to stop this week. Enjoy not being needed. Enjoy being.

Enjoy the good life.

Thanks,

Aaron

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“They come to us because they feel alone.” Julie said this about the women who come to the pregnancy help-center where she works.

They weren’t expecting to be pregnant and don’t want to have an abortion. Though, many considered it. “They come because they believe they have nowhere else to go for help.”

They walk in destitute only to discover friends waiting for them.

The fear of being alone is common to us all—even those who prefer being on their own.

At heart, we just want to have the choice. We want to know we can choose to not be alone if we wish. Life is insufferable when forced into unwanted solitude.

We are meant for others. And that is why Jesus resurrected. His resurrection means you don’t have to be alone.

Before his crucifixion, he isolated himself with those closest to him.

Amazingly, we have a peak into this intimate conversation where Jesus explains why he will return from death—why he will resurrect. He returns for their comfort. He returned to commission them.

He said to his group, “I will not leave you as orphans, but will return to you…the world will not see me, but you will see me.”

After Jesus died and his followers thought they were alone, he resurrected from the dead. He came to be with them.

His fearful, destitute followers encountered the consolation Jesus promised. He appeared to them at night and even ate fish with them.

His resurrection also unleashed a new kind of comfort: a personal comforter, the Spirit of God who would be with them.

Jesus said the Spirit’s presence is better than his physical presence. By it, we receive God’s life. We receive God’s power.

In God’s power they were commissioned. Jesus’ group became the church and was sent in God’s power to those not having God’s comfort in order to give them God’s comfort.

From his resurrection, Jesus not only restored people to God; he restored people to people.

He prays before he dies that his followers would be one. They will understand and experience God better through their unity and communion.

Through Jesus’ resurrection, we have access to God and a new community of people who commune with God, the church. The church is God’s hands and feet.

So you don’t have to be alone. You don’t have to walk aimlessly. You don’t have to feel destitute.

He resurrected. So enjoy God’s presence and embrace his purpose.

Thanks for Reading,

Aaron

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If Jesus resurrected, then you can find purpose in the small and mundane.

“They have forgotten what it means to really live.” Leonard, De Niro’s character, was in an unresponsive, catatonic state and awoke for a brief time 25+ years later.

The 1990 film called Awakenings is based on Dr. Oliver Sacks’ 1973 memoir.

Leonard was relearning what it means to exist when he realized how so many perceive life so negatively. Leonard said, “They’ve forgotten how good it is.”

Malcolm, Robin Williams’ character portraying Dr. Sacks, experimented with the drug L-Dopa to “awaken” catatonic patients. It worked. Leonard was the first person Malcolm “awoke.”

But only for a brief while. All the patients went back into catatonia.

Malcolm later explained, “…as the chemical window closed, another awakening took place; that the human spirit is more powerful than any drug and that is what needs to be nourished: with work, play, friendship, family. These are the things that matter. This is what we’d forgotten, the simplest things.”

The substance of life is in work, play, friendship, and family.

But it is only through the small and mundane that we can cultivate these simplest of things.

From movies we think life is lived from one climactic moment to another, from one big opportunity to the next, or from radical decision to radical decision. Wrong.

Life is less sexy and more complicated. Most of life could not capture our attention on the big screen. So we do not cultivate these simplest of things by not tending the small things.

Small things don’t feel significant.

Marriages go awry, friendships dwindle, work grows stale, and play is numbing rather than nourishing.

When Jesus resurrected, he renewed the human vocation God intended: to commune with God and to live through work, play, family, and friendships.

From his resurrection, we learn that the mundane actually captures God’s attention and that it is for these simplest of things we were made.

So though your small act of buying lunch, playing a board game, or listening to someone vent may not feel significant, it is. Such is life.

Eventually, the world will be renewed and life with it. But the substance of life will not change. In the new earth, there will be work, play, family, and friendships.

By embracing Jesus’ resurrection life, you embrace the good life as it is meant to be.

So you can be attentive to the little things and take yourself off autopilot. Life matters. Your choices matter. You matter.

The resurrection proves it.

Thanks,

Aaron

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“I don’t enjoy spending much time with them during this early stage of their lives. I can’t change who I am so why would I do so?”

I was at my first doctor’s appointment in five years. He was young and had a family so I asked him how he balances life.

“My wife is a doctor as well, but she works less because it is easier for her to spend time with the kids than it is for me.”

“When they were babies, I couldn’t communicate with them—they don’t talk…Nor do I like kid baseball games, they’re boring…I can’t change who I am.”

He loved his wife and kids—spoke well of them. But he explained he didn’t like spending much time with his kids while they’re at this younger stage because he can’t do adult things with them—conversing being his primary example.

So he works more and looks forward to spending time with them when they’re older and can connect better.

He spoke with a very down-to-earth tone and gave his rationale as if it were commonsensical. He wasn’t a rude guy and I will definitely return when I need another checkup.

Yet I was taken back having never heard anyone speak like this about their kids. Of course we’ve all seen people act this way toward their children, but he was speaking frankly about it.

He seemed to be completely oblivious to what is completely obvious to us: he chose not to spend time with his kids because he didn’t feel like it. Why? Because they can’t relate to him in the way he wants them to.

“I can’t change how I feel or what I want,” was his reasoning.

“I must obey my feelings and can’t do what I don’t want,” was his assumption.

Many of us are taught to operate this way so don’t be surprised or condemnatory.

You do it too.

And we have no reason to change…unless change is possible, personally beneficial, and favorable to our relationships.

Jesus began the new world by resurrecting from the dead in order to show the new way forward. So who you were yesterday will not produce the joy Jesus intends for you to have.

By giving your feelings and desires supreme authority, you will not have the good life as it is meant to be had. Your life will be deficient.

Today you can have the assurance that change is possible…and affordable—Jesus is covering it for you.

So Step #1 = Believe that change is possible.

You can conform your feelings and desires to the universe-creating God and practice living as if you were already on an everlasting planet with no thorns. It is coming. The good life is now known and you don’t have to be who you were yesterday.

Thanks,

Aaron

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If Jesus resurrected, then your agenda is not the most important part of each day.

This one is for the planners.

“How do you do it?” I asked wondering why he is not frustrated with so many interruptions. “I simply adjust my thoughts so that when I am in the office, I am free game to any who needs to interrupt me,” he said.

He responds with patience and kindness as he listens to person after person swing by his desk.

As one who oversees much of the organization, he has plenty of urgencies along with long-term planning to occupy his day. But he chooses flexibility so he can answer any question or have those much needed spontaneous meetings.

His agenda is to hold his agenda loosely.

The moment we wake up, the plan for the day grips our thoughts. “I know what I want to do and accomplish.” When our third item on the list is delayed, the brows drop, your mind races, and you’re seized with irritation.

We get angry because our expectations are not met, but we don’t have to.

It’s simple…change your expectations.

This kind of change in mindset is not easy because suppressing what we want doesn’t come natural.

At least it won’t come natural unless we change what we want.

When Jesus resurrected, he appeared to his disciples and many others because he wanted them to know he resurrected. He wants us to know he resurrected because it will affect our mindset for life—and for each day.

We can learn a new agenda.

We learn a better agenda that will do more than satisfy our day. It will even do more than satisfy life before death. The resurrection makes known an eternal agenda in which we can take part—daily.

The resurrection means that God is in control and that his daily agenda isn’t even thwarted by death. It also means what he wants for the world is more important than what we want for the world.

And that means what he wants for your day is more important than what you want for your day.

…meaning that those moments, when your day doesn’t go as you planned, actually reveal that God has something better for you than you can imagine…because if you could have imagined it, then you would have planned it.

But you didn’t.  Your plan didn’t work out. God chose differently. And that is how you know you can trust him. Though it is the hardest thing to do, embracing God’s change is the best thing you can do.

So let’s make the agenda and accept his revisions.

Thanks,

Aaron