New Hope CE, March 2003
William Gaultiere, Ph.D.
Executive Director of New Hope

WELCOME

My seminar is called "Living and Caring with God's Pleasure."  You're going to discover that God wants you alive with His life and love and that He's called you and empowered you to share this with others.  And, here's the best part, when you live and care for others like this will enjoy God's pleasure!

This hour will be more than a seminar.  It's an opportunity for your heart to awaken to a journey with God.  I know that you're going to be blessed by it because I have been!  It's my story.  It's the journey I'm on.

As I was preparing for this talk I felt energized by God.  I was up until 1:30 am working on it.  It wasn't a compulsive, workaholic frenzy.  I know about that!  It wasn't a time of anxious, obsessing over worries.  I know about that too!  It was my passion and my prayers.  It was God inspiring me to tell you how he's been helping me to live and care for others with His pleasure.

PRAYER

Let's pray together for your experience with this class.  Dear Father God, I lift up my New Hope comrades to you.  Open their hearts to see your smile, to sense the wellspring of the Spirit in their souls giving your life, and to hear your voice calling them to a higher purpose for living and caring with your pleasure.  Use us as New Hope Counseling "ambassadors for Christ" to share your care and kindness to those who are hurting.  In Jesus' name we pray.  Amen.

That's why the Bible says, "The Lord will take great delight in you.  He will rejoice over you with singing.  He will quiet you with His love (Zephaniah 3:17, NIV).  He has made known to you the path of life; He will fill you with joy in His presence, with eternal pleasures at His right hand (Psalm 16:11, NIV).  Yes, the joy of the Lord is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10, NIV).  For in his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  For you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls (1 Peter 1:3,6,9, NIV).  So let's rejoice!  Rejoice in the Lord always! (Philippians 4:4, NIV)  It's only in Him that we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28, NIV).  Through Christ we can live freely, animated and motivated by God's Spirit (Galatians 5:13, Message).  Truly, the Lord has his eye on us and has designs on us for glorious living! (Ephesians 1:12, Message)  So continue with others for their progress and joy in the faith, so that through them being with you again their joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of you." (Philippians 1:25-26, NIV) 

That's the gospel!  That's how God wants us to live.  And I have the Scripture references for the nine Bible passages that make up that "love note" from God to prove it.

Are you Living a "Glorious Adventure?"

Do you believe that God delights in you and has called you to live a glorious adventure?  Are you living this way?

A little over a year ago I realized that I wasn't living my life and caring for others with God's pleasure, at least not to the degree that I am now.  I had become like a can of soda pop that had gone flat.  The fizz was missing.  The sparkle in my eyes was lost.

What went wrong?  I had neglected my First Love and lost my passion for serving Him.  Slowly, over almost 20 years, I had forgotten the lessons that God had taught me.  I had become somewhat bored with being a counselor.  Stressed by managing New Hope.  Tired of working mostly to pay bills.  I was spiritually flat and going from day to day without the focus I needed.

This seminar is how I'm learning to live.  It's how I'm learning to live and care with God's pleasure.

LEAN INTO LIFE'S WHITEWATERS

Living and caring with God's pleasure is an adventure!  It's not for the faint of heart.  It's not for the hesitant.  It takes faith.  We need to go for it with all we've got!

Last year I went whitewater rafting on the Kern River with my 11-year old son and his by Boy Scout trip.  What a thrilling adventure!  And scary too!  Driving on the highway along the river we saw a sign that said, "264 people have died in the Kern river since 1962."  I thought about turning around.  If that wasn't bad enough, I learned that just one-week prior someone died in the river. 

This was on my mind at the roughest section of the classs-3 rapids when our guide yelled, "High water hard!" which he had taught us meant, "Lean forward into the high waters and paddle hard or else we'll flip over!" 

Being one of the two front paddlers, I knew my role was crucial so I leaned out over the tip of the raft and into the splashing waves and paddled furiously through about a five foot dip, screaming, " Ahhhh!  Ahh!" and then finally, "Yes!  We did it!" 

My excitement and sense of conquest was abruptly curtailed though when our guide yelled out to the other guide on the raft next to us, "Rescue!"  One of the women on our raft had been catapulted into the water.  She was careening down the river head first (not feet first as she had been instructed!) and had to be pulled to safety by the other guide.  She bruised and bloodied her hand and needed stitches, but she was going to be okay. 

My son and I, and I think the others too, gained something important from prevailing in our battle with the roaring whitewaters and crashing waves - trust.  To avoid the jutting rocks and to crash through the turbulent waves we had to trust our guide, who knew the Kern River like the back of his hand, was right in telling us to lean into the rough waters.

Leaning into the crashing waves and paddling through a five foot drop in the river? 

Joy in Trials

That's like the Scripture: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."  (James 1:2-4)

Joy in trials?  It's the opposite of what we tend to do.  We lean away from life's turbulence when we complain about our problems or avoid other people's pain.

That's what I found myself doing a few months ago when my raft crashed into a series of pre-adolescent rapids with my son, the same son who went on the whitewater raft trip with me.  Disobedience, defiance, negativity, bullying his younger sisters.  But underneath it all he was pressured and depressed by schoolwork, added responsibilities, and feeling like he wasn't appreciated in our home. 

And I'm supposed to be a psychologist!  It's tough to be a psychologist and a parent.  You don't believe me?  The other day my daughter complained, "You don't even care about how I feel.  You shouldn't be a counselor for other people!"

"Lean into the rough waters Bill.  Rejoice in your trials."  To live with this attitude I have to remind myself of this again and again.  This is an opportunity to teach my son to respect authority.  I have the chance to show him that my love for him doesn't change even when he's difficult.  And, here's the amazing part, when I do this I actually feel good!  I feel better about myself and closer to the ones I love.

BEFRIEND OUR PAIN AND OTHERS PAIN

It's ironic, but to live and care with God's pleasure we need to feel pain.  John Powell, S.J., a professor at Loyola University in Chicago, shared a touching story that I came across.  It illustrates my point that when we connect with our pain and others pain we connect with God and His joy.

I stood watching my university students file into the classroom for our first session in the Theology of Faith. That was the first day I first saw Tommy. My eyes and my mind both blinked.  He was combing his long flaxen hair, which hung six-inches below his shoulders. I immediately filed Tommy under "S" for strange... very strange. 

Tommy turned out to be the "atheist in residence" in class. He constantly objected to, smirked at or whined about the possibility of an unconditionally loving Father-God. 

When he came up at the end of the course to turn in his final exam, he asked in a slightly cynical tone: "Do you think I'll ever find God?"

"No!" I said very emphatically.

"Oh," he responded, "I thought that was the product you were pushing."

I let him get five steps from the classroom door and then called out:  "Tommy! I don't think you'll ever find him, but I am absolutely certain that he will find you!" 

He shrugged a little and left my class and my life.

How Tommy, the Atheist, Found God

Later I heard that Tommy had graduated; then a sad report, I heard that he had terminal cancer.  Before I could search him out, he came to see me. When he walked into my office, his body was very badly wasted, and the long hair had all fallen out as a result of chemotherapy. But his eyes were bright and his voice was firm when he said, "For the first time, I believe."

"Tommy, I've thought about you so often. I hear you're sick!" I blurted out.

"Yes, very sick. I have cancer in both lungs. It's a matter of weeks."

"Can you talk about it, Tom?"

"Sure, what would you like to know?"

"What's it like to be only twenty-four and dying?"

"Well, it could be worse."

"Like what?" 

"Well, like being fifty and having no values or ideals.  Like being fifty and thinking that booze, seducing women, and making money are the real 'biggies' in life." 

I began to look through my mental file cabinet under "S" where I had filed Tommy as strange. (It seems as though everybody I try to reject by classification, God sends back into my life to educate me.)

"But what I really came to see you about," Tom said, "Is something you said
to me on the last day of class.  I asked you if you thought I would ever find God and you said, 'No!' which surprised me. Then you said, 'But he will find you!' I thought about that a lot, even though my search for God was hardly intense at that time." 

"But when the doctors removed a lump from my groin and told me that it was malignant, then I got serious about locating God. And when the malignancy spread into my vital organs, I really began banging bloody fists against the bronze doors of heaven.  But God did not come out. In fact, nothing happened." 

"Well, one day I woke up, and instead of throwing a few more futile appeals over that high brick wall to a God who may be or may not be there, I just quit. I decided that I didn't really care... about God, about an after-life or anything like that." 

"I decided to spend what time I had left doing something more profitable.  I thought about you and your class and I remembered something else you had said: 'The essential sadness is to go through life without loving.  But it would be almost equally sad to go through life and leave this world without ever telling those you loved that you had loved them.'"

"So I began with the hardest one: my Dad. He was reading the newspaper when I approached him." 

"Dad."

"Yes, what?"  He asked without lowering the newspaper. 

"Dad, I would like to talk with you."

"Well, talk."

"I mean. It's really important!" The newspaper came down three slow inches.

"What is it?" 

"Dad, I love you. I just wanted you to know that." 

Tom smiled at me and said with obvious satisfaction, as though he felt a warm and secret joy flowing inside of him: "The newspaper fluttered to the floor. Then my father did two things I could never remember him ever doing before. He cried and he hugged me. And we talked all night, even though he had to go to work the next morning. It felt so good to be close to my father, to see his tears, to feel his hug, to hear him say that he loved me."

"It was easier with my mother and little brother. They cried with me, too, and we hugged each other and started saying real nice things to each other.  We shared the things we had been keeping secret for so many years."

"I was only sorry about one thing; that I had waited so long.  Here I was just beginning to open up to all the people I had actually been close to."

"Then, one day I turned around and God was there. He didn't come to me when I pleaded with him. I guess I was like an animal trainer holding out a hoop, 'C'mon, jump through.  C'mon, I'll give you three days....  three weeks.' Apparently God does things in his own way and at his own hour. But He was there. He found me. He found me even after I stopped looking for Him." 

Tommy Died But His Story Lives On

Tommy was scheduled to share his story in John Powell's class, but he died.  But the story lives on as Tommy asked for. 

When Tommy accepted his terminal cancer and his broken relationship with his father God showed up.  He finally experienced God's love.  He came alive!

And when John Powel entered into Tommy's dying and his pain with him he too experienced the love and joy of the Lord.

This is what I want to do.  To feel my painful feelings and share my heart with my friends.  To embrace others in pain as I've been doing the last 16 years as a psychotherapist.  What a priviledge and honor it is when someone trusts me with their hurt places and I get to be Christ's ambassador and offer his comfort.  It's a sacred moment and God always shows up with his love, joy, and peace in the midst of the pain.

What the Bible teaches is true.  Those who mourn are blessed and God is close to the broken hearted.

REACH OUT FOR GOD'S GRACE IN THE BODY OF CHRIST

We need to be in relationship with gracious people to enjoy life and caring.

The summer before my Sr. year of college I worked as an apprentice butcher.  It was one of the most painful times in my life.  Certainly a chance to "lean into the turbulence!" and "Befriend my pain." 

But the butchers butchered me!  They criticized my mistakes.  And I made plenty since I was just learning their trade.  They harassed me at every chance they could because they resented that I was there to make money for college, not to become a butcher.  They persecuted me for being a Christian and a moral kid, cussing at me, spewing out filth, and laughing at me.  I held back tears.  I tried to be strong.  I worked my hardest to do everything right and to be a good Christian.

But they got the best of me and before the summer was over I quit the job and walked away from money I needed for college.  I was exhausted, broken, and believed I was a failure.  I went home, feeling like a dog, licking my wounds.

I went on a 3-day retreat that I had planned at the beginning of the summer.  I needed to make decisions about my future.  What would I do with my psychology degree?  I thought I'd go to graduate school, but where?  So I had these days set aside for solitude, fasting, meditation, and prayer.  But then I got beat up in the meat market.  I didn't want to go, but I went anyway.

I Had a Vision

My experience at the monastery was meaningful, but not revolutionary.  The next day was a turning point though.  I was in church singing, "How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news.  Good news.  Announcing peace, proclaiming news of happiness.  Our God reigns!  Our God reigns!" 

Suddenly, in my mind's eye I saw myself at the bottom of Mount Sinai, where Moses got the 10 commandments.  I wanted to climb to the top to meet with God, but I felt dejected, exhausted, and incapable.  I felt the sense of shame and isolation that I felt in the meat market.  But I was telling myself that I had to get up.  I had to work at it.  I had to try harder and do better.

Then my anxious, self-critical and self-demanding thoughts were interrupted by the sight of Jesus coming down the mountain.  He was looking at me with eyes of compassion.  He stopped when he came to me and picked me up and put me over his shoulders.  He started to carry me up the mountain.  A crowd formed and people started to insult him, spit at him, yell at him, and beat him.  I realized that I was like the cross on his back.  He was taking on himself the persecution I experienced and my sins.  He carried me all the way into the presence of God, to the top of the mountain.

And all I could see where his feet.  "How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news!"

I Learned to Seek the Grace I Need

After that I learned that I needed God's grace more than anything.  I was tired of isolating myself and working so hard to measure up.  Instead I was going to feel my feelings and to ask for help. 

So during my Senior year of college I started to open up my heart. First to one of my psychology professors who was my mentor.  Then in a support group.  And to my roommate and to a girl named Kristi who I started dating.  (She later became my wife!) 

I learned that the gracious acceptance I received for being honest was so much better than the praise I got for being ideal.

These support people were like God with skin on to me.  They were the Body of Christ for me.  They helped me experience the grace of God that touched my heart so clearly in my vision. 

LISTEN TO GOD WITH OUR HEART

To live and care with God's pleasure we also need to listen to our heart.

There are so many ways that God speaks to us - the Bible, prayer, sacraments like communion, wise Christians, friends, nature.  But there's only one way that we hear what God is saying - with our hearts.

This is exactly what David told us in Psalm 18:6, "I will praise the Lord who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me."

Maybe you Think your Heart is Bad?

Few Christians today understand this.  You've probably been told that your heart is bad, untrustworthy, or that is not so important compared to your thoughts and beliefs.  Maybe you've had Jeremiah 17:9 misused to bully your heart, "The heart is wicked and deceitful..."  Without the influence of Christ that's true, but even Jeremiah foresaw that God would give his people new hearts that would be responsive to Him.  Ezekiel said the same thing.

And Isaiah promised that as we go along in life our ears will hear God's voice saying this is the way, walk in it.

Solomon taught that we can learn to trust in the Lord with all our hearts and have him direct our paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Paul prayed that the eyes of our hearts would be opened to know the hope of God's calling. (Ephesians 1:18)

Jesus himself told us that with our whole hearts we're to love God and people.

As Christians our hearts are being made good and trustworthy.  So with David, the man after God's own heart, we can "Delight ourselves in the Lord, knowing that He will give us the desires of our hearts." (Psalm 37:4)   

What this means is that God isn't going to call you to be a missionary in Africa if you would hate doing that!  He's going to lead you to do things that you love!  Yes, some of the things he has us do are difficult or painful, but always they are good for our souls.

Here's what it's like to Listen to God

Listening to God is a moment-by-moment experience.  It's being aware of his presence in the here and now.  It's how we experience God's joy and it's how He guides us.  The Apostle Paul calls it "walking in the Spirit."  Brother Lawrence called it "practicing the presence of God."  Alcoholics Anonymous calls it "making conscious contact with God."

It's like wearing a Miner's Hat.  You know the hats with lights on them.  God gives us the light we need for one step at a time.  Take that step and we have the light we need for the next step.  And so we follow Him one step at a time.

Recently, I was talking with a priest who meets with me for spiritual direction.  He told me about an experience he had when he was preparing for a mass that he was to lead.  He was busily and methodically going through his routine of getting the eucharist ready.  When all of a sudden, he heard the meow of a cat.  He stopped what he was doing and looked toward the side door.  There stood an adorable black and white cat purring at him.  Then it crept right up to him and snuggled against his leg!  In a flash, my friend sensed God saying to him, "I'm here with you.  I love you.  You're blessed to be a blessing."

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised that God spoke to me through a stray cat," my friend chuckled.  " Afterall, God spoke to Balaam through a donkey in the Old Testament (Numbers 22).  I was tuned out when I needed to be tuned in.  I had forgotten the most important preparation for the mass - myself.  God used the purring and snuggling of that cat to love on me and then I was able to share His love with those who came to the service."

RECEIVE OUR MISSION FROM GOD

Here's the bottom line, the moral of the story that I've been leading up to.  To live and care with God's pleasure you need to live with an identified mission, an understanding of what God has called you to be and do in this life.

God has a higher purpose for us.  He wants to live his life through us - a life of joy, delighting in Him and His will, passionate about walking with Him and sharing his life with others. 

We have Different Gifts

The Apostle Paul says in Romans 12:4-8 that God has given each of us different gifts by his grace so that we might encourage one another and share God's love with those in need.  He's made each of us with our own personalities and abilities. 

In this passage Paul gives us a helpful list of 7 service gifts.  Listen for the one or two of these that are your gifts: preaching God's word, serving, teaching, encouraging, leading, giving help to people in distress, and caring for those in need.

Knowing your Life Mission

The Westminister Catechism asks: "What is the chief end of man?"  The answer is: "To glorify God and enjoy Him forever."  Broadly speaking that's a good mission statement for all Christians. 

And here's the beauty of it.  John Piper teaches that God's glory and our enjoyment are linked: We experience our greatest pleasure when we're glorifying God, or, said the other way, all true joys exalt the Lord.

Do you know what your life mission is?  Do you live with a purpose that excites you? 

A mission statement is like the rudder in a sail boat.  When you know your purpose you can steer the boat of your life in the right direction. 

It doesn't mean there won't be storms to toss your boat around.  There will.  You may even get blown off course.  Nor does it mean that you won't flounder at times.  Waiting for the wind to catch your sail.  That'll happen too.  But if you keep sailing and keep your hand on the rudder then God will guide you on the adventure that you're meant to live.

How I Clarified and Solidified my Mission

A year ago I started to come out of my lull when I decided that I needed a mission statement in the form of a Bible passage, a "life verse." 

After a number of weeks of prayer and reflection I settled on 2 Corinthians 5:20: "We are therefore Christ's ambassadors as though God were making his appeal through us.  We urge you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God." 

This verse spoke to my heart's desire.   It seemed to be God calling out to me saying, "Bill this is my plan for you.  You are my ambassador and you're to show my people that I am their Friend." 

Having this mission statement helps me to stay on course.  Now instead of being determined to be successful I'm determined to be Christ's ambassador.  Whatever I do, as a husband, father, friend, psychologist, teacher, New Hope Director, even in my hobbies, I can ask myself, "Am I being Christi's ambassador?  Am I caring for souls in Jesus' name?"

Then I'm living and caring for others with God's pleasure.

What's your life mission? 

Do you know the gift and purpose God has given you?  How about picking a verse from the Bible that you deeply want to be true of you?  Reflect on the verses or phrases from the Bible that have inspired you.  See if your heart won't settle on a possibility.  If that's hard for you then do what I did and pray that God would show you a life verse from the Bible and keep meditating and waiting for your heart to settle on a verse.

WHEN WE RUN OUR OWN RACE WE FEEL GOD'S PLEASURE

The Apostle Paul wrote, "You've all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race.  Everyone runs; one wins.  Run to win.  All good athletes train hard.  They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades.  You're after one that's gold eternally.  I don't know about you, but I'm running hard for the finish line. I'm giving it everything I've got.  No sloppy living for me!  I'm staying alert and in top condition."  (1 Corinthians 9:24-26, The Message) 

Paul's going for eternal gold.  Earlier in this chapter he wrote that he was compelled to share the good news with others and that this was his pleasure! (1Cor 9:17-18)  He was using his gift of teaching to serve God and help other people.  He was running his race by being who God meant for him to be.

Chariots of Fire

To conclude our seminar I want to share with you my favorite movie scene.  It's from "Chariots of Fire."  Eric Liddell is a student at Oxford and training for the 1924 Olympics in France.  His sister is frustrated with him because she thinks he should join her on the mission field in China.  Eric makes the Olympic team for Britain and is selected to run the 100-meter race, but when he found out that the race was on the Sabbath he refuses to run in order to honor God.  Another English runner so badly wants to see Eric run that he decides to give Eric his spot in the 400-meter race which was later in the week.  The other runners in the ¼ mile are sure that Eric will run out of gas since he's just a sprinter.

I want you to watch how he runs his race.  As he runs he's clutching a note, "He who honors me I will honor says the Lord."  He runs like no has ever run, before or since, laughing and arms flailing with the joy of the Lord.  And in his mind he talks to his sister, responding to her guilt trip, "Jenny, I believe that God has made me for a purpose and he made me FAST!  And when I run I feel his pleasure!!"

And all of England, all the world even, felt God's pleasure with him because of his character and the way he ran inspired us all!

What a Difference it Makes to Live and Care in God's Pleasure

Oh to live and care in God's pleasure like that!  That's a picture of how I want to run my life's race for God and others. 

It's what you and I long for.  To come alive with the life of God.  To live with purpose and passion inspired by God.  To use our gifts to bless others. 

It's what other people need from us.

I've found that when I'm caring and kind to people in need because it's what I "should do" God isn't much present and people aren't much blessed.  When I serve God out of duty and obligation it's just as empty for others as for me.

But when I delight in using my gifts and in sharing God's love, comfort, and encouragement then I see the smiles and the life change.  When I'm alive with God's pleasure others are inspired and blessed.

That's my message to you.  Let's live and care for others with God's pleasure!

NEXT CE CLASS

It'll be, "Living and Caring with God's Pleasure."  I'll be sharing how I've been re-energized and re-focused by God for my life after 40.

EXAM

For CE credit and for learning take the exam for this class, which is linked below.  Then, on your honor, score it yourself, using the answer key linked below.  Send verification to SheilaS@CrystalCathedral.org so that we can track your progress toward a New Hope CE award for 2003 (completing 11 out of 11 classes).

To help you with the counseling role play you'll want to reference: "Responses to Avoid in New Hope Counseling,"

http://www.newhopenow.org/counselors/case.studies/responses.avoid.html

And "The A-B-C's of New Hope Counseling Checklist,"

http://www.newhopenow.org/counselors/case.studies/abcs.html 

CE Exam