A Search for Joy

Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Maaning could be re-titled for me My Search for Joy. I've been searching for joy fro a long time, probalby my whole life. Joy really came to my attention a few years back when Conversations (a wonderful, but no longer published journal) printed an article about joy. In it I learned that joy is biologically different from happiness. They show up when experienced in different parts of the brain. Happiness depends on which way the emotional winds are blowing at the moment. Joy is more deeply rooted than that. Joy also dissipates over time and has to be replenished. Of course the Disney Pixar movie Inside Out helped as Joy was at the forefront as heroine of the movie's theme and focus. Joy became more real in the grace of a second relationship and commitment in marriage to Camille. And today I am mining the literature as well as my heart as to what taking delight in means. Joy and delight are akin. Joy and delight result in a deep sense of satisfaction. They involve spontaneity, improvisation. No wonder this early on introvert found great satisfaction in puns, those word jokes learned while practicing over a two year period of time for the National Spelling Bee. I also learnd from Anne that puns and jokes can hurt, so I had to tone down my spontaneity in that area and reflect before I go splashing my word tricks on someone else. This takes me back to the seed planting of this journey when I read Stephen Shoemaker's sermon about contentment which as I've discovered, is a part of joy and delight. Stephen wrote about Psalm 131:2 -But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content. (NIV) So what does this have to do with my life's focus now in working toward the healing of trauma through a ministry of the church? Abuse and trauma rob God's creatures of joy and delight that are born in the innocence of childhood, and even that of adulthood. The Good News, Banner Headlines, are that there is hope and healing even from the most brutal abuse or neglect! And a vital, living, renewed, refreshed relationship with God through Jesus Christ can bring that to re-fruition in a person's hear that has been shattered by the brokenness of abuse and neglect. For some of you today, all you can feel is the darkness you were plunged into at a veyt early age, or maybe, recently. Let me say with Psalm 30:4b - "...weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning." Wake up with me this day and find and experience joy. The Father has left that gift next to your bedside, ready for you to be dressed in it this day. Feel the warmth and clean scent of joy and delight wash over you as He clothes you in his righteousness. Let's rejoice! And, again, I say (along with the apostle Paul), rejoice! Blessings!

A Change in Direction (Somewhat)

First of all, I want to apologize for being away from The Epiphany Engineering Company for a long time since 2013. A lot has happened since then. Anne, my beloved wife of 42 years died in 2016. I retired from the Dallas ISD teaching at Spruce HS the next year. In 2019 while at the Texas Baptist Convention in Waco, TX, I reconnected with a long time ministry friend, Camille Simmons. I had met Camille in San Antonio 1n 1993 while doing a Story Listening Evangelism training event for the San Antonio Baptist Association, where Camille was Coordinator of Ministries for 16 years. After that three minute chance meeting in the hall of the Waco Convention Center, we began to talk ministry business over the phone two days a week. That turned into multiple times, daily, even after midnight. September 5, 2020, God's grace brought us together in marriage and a joy filled new chapter for each of us began. Both of us had recently known the painful loss of a spouse. For nearly 18 years I have also worked in the field of trauma, as an educator, author, and presenter. Camille shares in this calling with her own national prayer ministry for parents of small children. Here is the change in direction: Shortly I will launch podcasts aimed at helping both survivors of trauma as well as the Courageous Christians who answer the call to minister to those who have been abused and traumatized in the their lifetimes. This will be addressed to each group separately. I will continue to use and build the Trauma Ministry website: www.traumaministry.net. AND I will devote The Epiphany Engineering Company to talking about all things trauma. The blog will continue to include my work with Story Listening Evangelism which is a critical component of healing with trauma survviors as well as a critical tool for listening for those Courageous Christians who will be called to Trauma Ministry where they will be trained, equipped and, supported to increase their resiliency and capacity to enter into the pain of the stories and lives of trauma survivors. A long time ago when the modern missionary movement was launched, one person said, "I'll go down, if someone holds the rope." We may not live in an age of deep mining from which that metaphor came, but The Epiphany Engineering Company, Trauma Ministry, and every breath I take will be to hold the rope as Courageous Christians minister to Trauma Survivors and as Trauma Survivors have the courage to break their silences and enter into a world of care and healing for their brokenness. And for Trauma Survivors who have so longed to be seen, heard, known, and understood, Trauma Ministry will attempt to connectyou to a Courageous Christian who knows just how to listen to you, no matter what, so you will be, once again, seen, heard, known, and understood! So hang on for more guidance in the Change in Direction! Blessings! Erenst Izard PhD epizard@verizon.net

Let's get started

So what do you do first? Share a portion of the dialog you have had with the person to whom you are witnessing, especially where the sledding gets tough or stuck. Other things to share include: the first thing the person said themes that continue to emerge in the conversation what does the person keep on repeating when did the person change the subject when did the person become more animated what were some of your responses at key points in the conversation Let's start with these clues. There are more and we will add them as we progress or submissions bring them to the forefront. Blessings!

Invitation to Listen to the Lost

I want to change the direction of this blog a bit and invite my colleagues and friends and those they touch to bring their witnessing conversations to this blog community so that together we can help each other be used by God to lead that person to His saving grace. Using the model of Story Listening I have outlined in previous posts, we can listen over each others' shoulders to the conversations we are having with those God has put in our paths. The key rule to guide us is to always keep the names and identities anonymous of those we are witnessing to and sharing in this blog. I will plan to check the blog daily for entries and give my observations as soon as I have gained insight. I invite you to do the same as we share this help in Christian love. Looking forward to the journey with you.

What Will We Tell the Children?

I never met five year old, red headed Rebekah. Yet my life has been indelibly touched by her life. It was Hugo George Zobjeck, Uncle Hoag to everyone, who introduced me to Rebekah. Rebekah died a few weeks before my first Sunday as pastor of Friendship Baptist Church in western Kentucky. That Sunday during the sermon, children were moving all over the country church sanctuary, even rolling down the slope of the floor under the pews all the way to the altar. Uncle Hoag came up to me immediately after the service, apologizing for the distractions which had not bothered me. He told me how everyone in that close knit church family had performed the percussions on Rebekah’s small back, helping to loosen the mucous buildup of cystic fibrosis and give her the breath of life. His words still ring in my ears, “For us, children are a sign of life.” A few years later I held Uncle Hoag’s funeral, preaching from Joshua 4, asking “What will we tell the children?” Then and in many similar situations, I have walked through the valley of death with families, reassuring them, the children, and the child in all of us that God is faithful, just as He was to the Israelites. Placing an imaginary pile of stones in front of the gathered grief-stricken, I would build a monument in their hearts of how God frees us from the slavery of sin, just as he freed the Hebrew slaves. God saw them through the original rock and a hard place when they got caught in their exodus from Egypt between the impassable Red Sea and an approaching army of armed charioteers. The freed slaves passed safely on dry land to the other side. In 40 years of wilderness wandering God was faithful in seeing his chosen people through a dry, aimless, meaningless time in the desert. He provided guidance by day and night, food to sustain them, and leadership. Finally, at the swollen Jordan River (little more than creek in Texas terms), the children of Israel despaired at having come this far only to be prevented from entering the Promised Land. Just as before, God was faithful. Dry land guided them across the river bed. They left a pile of stones on the bank of the Jordan to remind future generations of God’s faithfulness. More recently, the Jordan River has become a metaphor for the crossing from life to death and into eternity. None of us have had full experience with that upcoming event. As I would close the service, I would remind the family that just as God had been faithful in the past, he will be faithful in death, being the first face and the hand that will reach out and welcome us and our loved ones into his everlasting arms. So, in the wake of the unspeakable horror at an elementary school in Connecticut today, what do we tell the children? What do we tell the child in each of us? Simply, God has the final word in all of our lives, not death. The ultimate power of the evil that raised it head and spewed its venom through bullets today was broken at the Cross of Jesus and the power of resurrection will vindicate the truth about evil, brokenness, sin, and the Devil himself. In the same breath, we can shout at the Gates of Hell, “You cannot, you will not have our children!” We tell our children that there is nothing that they can do or happen to them that will ever change our love for them. Just like God’s love, nothing can separate them from Him, His love, as well as our love. Now we needturn to our grieving, heartbroken nation and say in the name of freedom, liberty, and any other patriotic term we can muster, we can no longer pretend God out of our lives. We need to remind our neighbors, far and near, that the stars in the sky were not put there by some earthbound animator. Once again, we need to start living and walking by faith again--no apologies, no excuses, no fine print, no asterisks. Finally, we turn to the world community looking aghast at America and say, fatalistic belief systems will not solve the problems we face nor heal our corporate grief. Grace, love, and hope trump judgment and anonymity. Tonight, Anne and I have called our children and grandchildren, hugging them over the airwaves. We have taken this moment to remind our children what Rebekah’s short life taught me over a lifetime. What will you tell your children, the children of America and the world? What will you tell the child in you that today has been shocked, scared, outraged, numbed, searching for an almost forgotten innocence? If words fail you, remind yourself that God has cried today also. And as His tears dry, listen for Him to speak to your trembling heart. With the confidence of an eternity of faithfulness, hear Him: He WILL have the last word and IT will be a GOOD one, full of genuine hope, grace, and a lasting peace from the brokenness of our world. Blessings as we grieve together today!

Evangelism in a pluralistic world

How do we do evangelism in a pluralistic world? Our communities are filled with people of competing and conflicting faiths and beliefs, and even those who clamor for their attempt at unbelief to be believed. Perhaps the first thing we need to remember is that Christianity came into the world in a similar setting—a pluralistic world where government and its leaders were deified, multiple, competing deities clamored for attention and allegiance, and in that fullness was a vacuum that sucked the life out the spirit of everyday people. We could even go back to the beginning of God’s story of self-revelation. It came to Abraham in a land of competing deities. Moses wondered if the messenger in the burning book was also a jurisdictionally limited being. David, a man after God’s own heart, saw the God’s of the Philistines, Dagon, seemed to have clout with people. Later, reviving bull worship at the high places from the Egyptian past edged out the worship at Jerusalem, leaving a people divided in their expression of worship. The second thing to bear in mind is to remember what also has not changed over the years. God’s story of how He is at work to redeem his creation has not changed. And humanity’s story of brokenness in relationship to the Creator has not changed. The competing religions then, as well as today, sought to find God and His peace, forgiveness, hope, a place in the afterlife, and in some cases grace. That brings me to today. How do we share faith? By bringing God’s story and a person’s story together. As Leighton Ford wrote, “The aha! moment in salvation occurs at the intersection of God’s story and the lost person’s story.” The 21st century witness needs to be equipped, not with some exotic theology or dynamic business-tested sales pitch. Rather, today’s person of Kingdom faith concerned about the people who need to know Jesus, need to know God’s story, their own story of experiencing God’s story, and to know how to listen and hear that person’s story that can only be self-heard in its encounter with God’s story of redemption. Knowing God’s story is knowing the stories of Scripture. Also, the person sharing faith has to be sensitive to seeing, hearing, and feeling the movement of God’s story toward the person with whom they are sharing faith. Knowing your own story means becoming comfortable and confident in what God has done and is doing in your life. Years ago Paul Little wrote in How to Gove Away Your Faith that if a person waked in the room with a fried egg hanging off their ear, saying it was the best thing to ever happen to that person, you could not argue with that. In fact, that dangling gift from a hen may be the best thing that ever happened to that person. You cannot argue with experience. And that is true for the Christian. No one can argue with you that what Jesus Christ has done for you is the best thing that has happened in your life! Well, some people will try to argue with that. Don’t let them. Quietly let them vent their wasted arguments. Your testimony has self-defined you as a person of faith. What you receive in their arguing is a change back reaction that happens autonomically—trying to change you back to the person you were before, not because they are right and you are wrong, but because they are uncomfortable. The balance in your relationship has changed. The third ingredient of 21st Century evangelism is listening. Helping a person who needs to find God through a relationship with Jesus involves knowing how to hear a person’s meta-story—that deep structure story that is driving to the surface of that person’s consciousness all the other stories being told. Many witnesses have heard a person tell the same story over and over again. Each attempt to lead that person to faith experiences resistance. That is not because you, as the witness, have not heard the repeated story. Rather it is the storyteller that has not heard his or her own meta-story. The resistance comes because that repeated story may be what is currently holding that person’s concept of faith or disbelief together. When the meta-story is heard, an aha! moment occurs, and the story usually does not get repeated. Most importantly, God’s story gets heard and salvation begins. A number of powerful skills can be used to assist the 21st witness to share faith. The Aurora Network has committed itself to being the go to organization for cutting edge training in what we call Story Listening Evangelism. If you are interested in learning more about how to incorporate these listening skills into your witness, contact Ernest Izard at epizard@verizon.net. If you have someone you have been sharing faith with and have run into resistance, contact Dr. Izard and he will listen and look over your shoulder to make some listening skills suggestion on what to do net in your witness. This approach to sharing faith was successful on the Gaza Road for an Ethiopian official and for some one time philosophers whose stories were heard on Mars Hill in Athens. The same can be true for those you care enough to listen to in order to hear their story. We will be looking for your email.

Sunday Ain't the Time for a Sermon

I know I am a bit behind the times when I tell  you I heard Sandi Patty's song, The Bare Stage, for the first time last night.  If you are not familiar, the words express the deep longing and need for God by the performer who has walked off the stage having completed a performance to a rousing crowd. Now the stage is empty except for the lone work light  illuminating the darkness.

The song resonated with those moments after having delivered a sermon.  Emptied,   knowing full well only His presence could fill, no matter how much I got patted on the back for a good sermon at the backdoor.

Last night my mind raced ahead to think of the people in worship on Sunday.  I wonder if Sunday morning is when they will hear that sermon, that Word from God ?  Or will there be enough in the Word preached to remember in the moments after....?

...after notification of the death of a loved one,...after delivery of papers from the other's attorney,...after the doctor confirmed the symptoms with a diagnosis,...after your child reminded you that you might have trained them up in the way they should go, but they have definitely not returned--yet,...after a pink slip lies limp in your stunned, though competent hands,...after a betrayal kisses your face with the hot salt tears, staining your cheeks.

Most of us know the need for God in those moments.  What about after...?

...after that graduation,...that raise,... after that promotion,...after that wedding,... after the birth of that child, or grandchild,...after that mountaintop experience....?

Perhaps these are the moments that preceded Sunday morning sermon attendance.  I am not saying Sunday morning sermons are a waste of time, or that we have to schedule our times in God's presence as Israel did on the Day of Atonement.  Rather, I am yearning, along with Sandi Patty,  where is the sermon, the Word of God, God Himself when the work is over, the accolades have faded, and no one is around to know you were the headliner?  Just one source of light guiding you safely across the barren stage.

That's where sermons belong: like a bag of refreshing trail mix that gives timely energy for the present moment and the hike that lies ahead when we have used up all our stored energy.

I am confident that God will show up in those moments (He keeps His promises and appointments), like he did for Lt. Dan on top of that mast in the movie, Forrest Gump.  What about the sermon, the vehicle, equipping for that moment the listener walks off stage?

The challenge is twofold:  Proclaim the Gospel truth in such a way that the listeners will leave with more than a doggie-bag-ful, ready to nourish when those moments come.   As caring, compassionate Christians, we need to be sensitive to the clues from others who can't wait for Sunday morning's sermon.  They are in need of something more immediate than three points and a poem.  They need a Word couriered intervention from an ambassador like Philip on the desert highway. 

As fellow performers walking across the bare stage after our show is over, let's listen for others standing in the darkness.  Some can't wait for Sunday morning.  Others may not make it into a pew under a steeple next Sunday for whatever reasons.  Listen!  Then see the Presence of God fill that bare stage like He did for Isaiah when he grieved his king's death!  All because God loves them and used you to listen them to that aha! moment!

Want to know more about the kind of listening that makes such a difference as you share the Good News of Jesus?  Contact me at epizard@verizon.net.  I'll be listening for you.