Why "The Lighthouse?"

Let's form a growing community of like-minded people in pursuit of real relationship with God.

A few weeks ago, I came home from a work trip later than expected. A delayed takeoff in one city resulted in missing my connection in the next and I was bumped to a later flight. What was meant to be a sweet family reunion before bedtime, was instead a lackluster return to a dark house filled with my sleeping family.

• There were no hugs waiting for me.

• No kisses reminding me I was finally home.

• No warm greetings welcoming me back after a long week away.

This isn’t entirely true. Our dog, Wicket, was very much awake and based on the rate at which his tail was wagging, he was extremely excited to see me.

But apart from Wicket, there was only one thing waiting to welcome me home…

Darkness.

I don’t know the last time you had to make your way through a dark house, but it’s a disorienting experience. Even when you’ve lived in a place for a long time, the darkness has a way of robbing your memory of where everything is located. Furthermore, I have three kids who seem to lack any capacity to put anything back where it belongs. This means that at any moment, every room in our house could potentially be covered in an array of Lego, shoes, drum sticks, art supplies, and dog toys just waiting to unleash pain on the bare feet of an unsuspecting traveler returning home in the dark from a long trip.

On this particular night, it wasn’t my kids who caught me off guard, but my wife. After I had successfully maneuvered my way through the minefield of our living room, I tiptoed my way toward our bathroom. What I did not anticipate was that Tami had taken our scale that is typically tucked in the corner of our bathroom and instead placed it right where I was trying to walk. Despite my best efforts to sneak through our room ninja-like, so as not to wake my sweet and sleeping wife, I stepped on the corner of this scale. I’m sure in reality it wasn’t that dramatic, but in the moment it sounded deafening. Needless to say, I woke up my wife, injured my foot and scared myself nearly to death and there was only one culprit to blame…

The darkness.

Here’s the point of my story:

So much of trying to live daily life feels like trying to safely make your way through a dark house. We’re often disoriented and confused. We work hard to avoid the myriad of obstacles in our path. Try as we might, there they are just waiting to trip us up, wound us, or disrupt the lives of those around us. We don’t always know which way is up and often the best route forward is obscured from our vision.

This can especially ring true when it comes to relationship with God. It’s my growing conviction that a majority of us who call ourselves “Christian,” don’t in fact have a genuine relationship with Him. Sure we attend church, pray and maybe even read our Bibles here and there. The problem is, you can fill your life with a sea of religious practices, even good ones, and still not experience relationship with God. The longer I pastor, the more conversations I have with people longing for more, but living in the dark when it comes to knowing where to start.

How do we move toward real relationship with God? How do we learn to hear His voice, know His heart and experience His presence with us? The truth is, all the wounds within us and the noise around us, make it quite challenging. Because of this, we all need help. We need…a lighthouse. We all know what function a lighthouse serves. A lighthouse is a tower that shines a bright light to help guide ships through dangerous waters, so they can safely navigate their way to harbor. I want to do the same for your soul.

For the past three years, I’ve been on a long, painful and disorienting healing journey, the result of which has been learning to truly relate with God. Along the way, I’ve been blessed to be surrounded by a small army of faithful guides, providing me the light I needed to navigate the darkness I was walking through. My hope and prayer is that this simple newsletter can be a way for me to come along side you and do the same. Each week I want to make a small deposit of practical direction to help you develop real relationship with God. But I would love this to be a conversation. I’d love to hear what resonates with you, confuses you, frustrates you, or has you feeling stuck. So comment, or reply. The more we engage, the more we experience the benefit of community.

I’d also love to reach as many people possible that may benefit from what we’re all thinking about. So if a particular post resonates with you, I would love if you shared it with someone in your life that you believe may benefit from it. Together, we can form a growing community of like-minded people in pursuit of real relationship with God.

I’m honored to be on this journey with you and I’m excited to see all God has.

Let’s start the conversation…

What would be some topics, issues, or practices that you’d like some help with?