Nov 10th: Extraordinary Service, with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski.
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Rev. Dr. Steven Koski
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Extraordinary Service with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski. Series: Ordinary People With Extraordinary Hearts A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon. Scripture: Genesis 12.2;Matthew 16.24.
Join us this Sunday to explore living a life of greater generosity and purpose. Hear an inspiring message on finding your ‘ikigai’ – the reason to wake up each morning. Connect with us online or in-person, all are welcome!
Transcript:
Steven: Are you a more generous person today than you were 12 months ago? Are you investing more of yourself in the purposes of God than you were a year ago? Are you risking more of yourself for the sake of love than you were a year ago? Are you living from a place of faith and trust in God’s abundance, or are you living from a place of fear and sense of scarcity? I mean, are you living like like this? Or are you living like this? Pope Francis said, rivers do not drink their own water. Trees do not eat their own fruit. The sun does not shine on itself, and flowers do not spread their fragrance for themselves. Living for others is a rule of nature. We are born to give ourselves to help each other. Life is good when you’re happy, but life is much better than what it’s meant to be when others are happy because of you, research has shown that that people people are happier, physically, emotionally, spiritually healthier when they practice generosity. Scripture says we are blessed so that we will be a blessing to others. Generosity is a spiritual practice as important as reading the Bible prayer, it is through our lives that God’s generous love gives itself away. You know, maybe that’s why we experience so much joy when we’re generous. When we are generous, we bring something of God into the world. 1000 people over the age of 90 were asked if you had to live your life over again. What would you do differently? You know, think about that now. The third most popular response was, interestingly, I would live less cautiously. I would take more risks. Helen Keller said, Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. Would you describe your life, your your faith as a daring adventure? You know, we often misinterpret the the goal of our faith as arriving at a place where there’s where there’s certainty, where there where there’s comfort. What if the invitation of faith is actually being willing to to leave our places of comfort, to to leave behind our places of certainty, to follow Jesus in the risky way of love, the greatest risk is to not risk. You know, something in us dies the light, the light within us dims when fear and self preservation rule our lives. Now, the second most popular response to that question was, I would focus more on my relationships and focus more on loving well, people don’t talk about what they accumulated or accomplished on their deathbed. They don’t talk about their cars, their house, their dream vacation, without exception, they talk about who they love and who loves them. And the most frequent response to the question, if you could live your life over again, what would you do differently? The most popular response was, I would spend less energy building a world for myself and more energy building a world where my grandchildren and those less fortunate than me might have a chance to flourish. In other words, I would concern myself less with with success and and more with significance. I’d focus less on the elusive happy life and more on what it means to live a meaningful life. I would live my life in service to others. Martin Luther King, Jr said, life’s most persistent and urgent question is, what are you doing for others? It seems the wisdom acquired by the time you reach the age of 90 is that the purpose of life is a life, a purpose. Jesus said it this way, those trying to preserve their lives will lose a sense of meaning and purpose in life. Those willing to give their lives away for the sake of love, they will find life. What good will it do for you to gain the whole world yet forfeit your soul? Now our culture actually encourages us to live like this, to live for ourselves, to live for for self preservation, the true joy in life is to live like this, generously using using our gifts, our passion, our time, our energy, our resources, for something larger than ourselves. What are the areas in the world where, where it’s been researched and studied, where people live the longest with a high degree of life satisfaction and well being is, is Okinawa, Japan. And in Okinawa there, there’s one word that that weaves its way through one’s entire lifespan, and that word is ikigai. Now, ikagai is roughly translated as the reason you wake up in the morning. One woman in Okinawa, who’s who’s 102 years old, said her ikigai. Her reason for waking in the morning is to hold her great, great granddaughter and sing to her so that she might find the song in her own heart. This woman said, when I’m holding and singing to my granddaughter, my heart bursts with joy. Isn’t that beautiful everyone, even when you’re 102 everyone needs a reason. Needs a purpose greater than ourselves. To wake us up in the morning. You know, our alarm clocks might tell us when to get up. It doesn’t tell us why to get up, we all need a why. You know, I often asked the question, why? I’m usually asked the question, well, how do you spell Presbyterian? But more often than not, I’m asked, what does it actually mean? What’s it mean to be a Presbyterian? There are two things, first, Grace, what we fundamentally believe is the love of God revealed to us in and through Jesus, that love is generous, that love is unconditional, and the second thing we believe is that each and every person, each and every person, is called by God to be a unique expression of that love in the world. It’s not just pastors or leaders or or some other special category of people. It’s not just them who are called by God. Everyone, everyone is called by God. You are called by God to be a unique expression of God’s love in the world, you know, our faith says there’s a divine voice amidst all of the other voices that clamor for our attention, there’s a divine voice that speaks deep, deep within our Hearts, calling us, summoning us, calling us to a life larger than ourselves, calling us to a life big enough for our souls, calling us to joy. Frederick Buechner said, the place God calls you is where your heart’s deep gladness and the world’s deep needs meet. Soliciting for God’s call involves both looking inward and looking outward. Your heart’s deep gladness is not merely self interest. It’s not self ambition. It’s much deeper than that. There’s there’s so much in this world that that promises life, but honestly, most of those things just end up stealing your joy, stealing your gladness. God does. Are is for us to experience deep gladness. I remember visiting the Philippines and receiving the gift of a of a flower necklace. I found out later this gift was worth a week’s wages for the man who gave me the gift, and in giving me the gift, can’t even begin to describe it, he exuded such joy, such joy in being able to give this gift to me, a complete stranger. Now, the gift I really desired was the freedom in that man’s heart that allowed him to give so freely, to give with such joy and generosity. Buechner says, to discern our hearts deep gladness, we need to listen to our lives. Gotta pay attention. Where are your moments of deep joy, you know? Where are the moments that make your make your heart sing? Where are the moments that that bring happy tears? Where are the moments when, when everything is aligned and life feels on purpose. Those moments you know, those moments when it feels like you’re doing what you are meant to do now, those moments just might be whispering about where God is calling you. But we can’t just look inward. We can’t just look inward to discern God’s call to us. Looking inward is only half the equation. Buechner said, if you if you come alive when you use your gifts, you presumably met requirement a but if your gift is writing, for example, and you’re using that gift to write cigarette ads, the chances are that you missed requirement B, for God’s calling. After looking inward and reflecting on your heart’s deep gladness, we need to look outward. We need to look at the world and all its pain and anguish and deep need and ask, How can my heart’s deep gladness touch this? How can I use use the gifts, passions and and the skills that make me feel most alive. How can I use those gifts to heal the brokenness of this world? Healing and transformation happen for ourselves and for others when our hearts deep gladness meets the world’s deep pain and need. I remember visiting Jean Dillard, who who now lives with the great company of the saints and God’s eternal love. But at the time I was visited her, she was feeling, she was feeling really despondent because she wasn’t able to participate in church life and participate in the mission of the church in the way that she had before, because of, because of her health, she was essentially bedridden. I asked her what she missed the most. I asked her what what she cared most deeply about. Jean said she missed encouraging people who are struggling. She always she said she always felt needed and and useful when she could reach out and support other people. And she said she missed seeing the children and the youth in our church. You know, she told me, they’re so important and and so much need of our support and encouragement. I told Jean that she had this, she had this real gift for helping other people feel seen and and valued and important and and she really did. So I suggested she might, she might consider writing notes of encouragement to our youth, just simply letting them know that that they’re loved and that she was praying for them. Now, Jean only had the energy to write one note of encouragement a day, and when she no longer had the energy to do that, she she would dictate have someone else write the note for her, for her, she said to me, not long before she. Transition from this life to more life. She looked at me and said, I loved I loved knowing that God still had a purpose for my life. Even being stuck in this bed writing these notes has brought me so much joy, and I could see it on her face, as for the cards, as for the notes she wrote. My son got one of those cards when he was a teenager going through a particularly tough period in his life, and I remember him saying, Wow, this woman, I don’t even know, she said she believed in me and that God loves me, that’s pretty cool. Now, did that make a difference? I don’t know. I do know that a woman’s deep gladness met a teenager’s deep need, and when that happens, something of God is brought into the world. Friends, God is calling you. God is calling you to move from living like this to living like this. Sure Life is good when we’re happy, but we know joy when others are happy because of our generosity. May it be so i.
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