A Reflection on 2009…The Year of NEW…

We are ending our year in a very familiar way…spending the week between Christmas and New Year’s with family and friends in the frozen tundra of the Twin Cities that we used to call home…times spent going sledding, playing WII, drinking Caribou coffee, building snow forts, and even going to see my beloved Timberwolves have been done before and most likely will be done again in the future…

And yet as our time in MN draws to a close and we get ready for our daily lives and routines in 2010, there is something very different about our holiday trip…instead of driving back to Chicago we will continue our road trip around Lake Michigan to our new home in Grand Rapids…and as I think back on this year, the change in our lives is much more than just driving by the ever familiar Route 59 exit…

In many ways, almost everything we were used to and connected to over the last 14 years is now different…we still watch the Bears and Cubs with special interest and keep up with some of our dearest friends in the world, but the life we were so used to was pretty much flipped upside down when we moved to West Michigan at the end of August…

This past year was one where we grew, we cried, we celebrated, and we often wondered about God’s leading and plan for our lives…and we are all still OK…we still love being a family and we still can’t believe that God invites us daily to be in relationship with Him, His people, and His world…and that HE has somehow seen fit to call us to be part of the remarkable and marvelous work He is doing in the midst of the brokenness of lives on this planet…

So in the midst of a deeply grateful season, here’s a few moments that have stood out to me in the last 12 months that shaped my career and our lives as the Huber clan…

*A seemingly endless series of significant conversations at the West Chicago Starbucks that became my favorite coffee place in the world due to the people I knew and met there…

*A random phone call from my pastor growing up one morning while at a conference in Austin with a teacher friend that ultimately led me to leave WA just over a month later…

*Walking around a quiet Cornerstone University campus on Memorial Day as a family and thinking to ourselves, “I think we could see our family becoming part of this community…”

*Going into my good friend and supervisor’s office at WA on the same day as one of my closest and longest colleagues to tell him I was leaving WA after 14 years as the Dean of Spiritual Life there…

*A final WA trip to Zambia (Trip #5) where we were so blessed by seeing long-time friends and change in Kakolo Village, and then being inspired to new action by seeing new needs in a community called Moyo in another part of the country…in many ways, the time with students in Zambia only made leaving WA an even more painful and daunting task after such a meaningful and life-changing experience…

*Final times with friends and former students at our favorite Chicago places as we got ready to leave the Windy City…

*A final family week at Disney World due to the generosity of a WA family where we had a wonderful time and relaxed before getting ready to move…

*Driving away from our first and only house for the last time after crying together at Subway at lunch and spending 4 hours the night before at a going away party with many of the people who had shaped and impacted our lives for eternity…and to be honest, I was thinking to myself, “Honestly, Chip, what have you done to your life and your family? And why have you done it?”

*Standing by myself grabbing my luggage at the airport in Bozeman, Montana not knowing the students and staff at the school where I was working for the first time
in a decade and a half…

*Sleeping on the living room floor in our new house we had finally decided on in Grand Rapids…and by the way, locking your keys in the new home and then trying to break into the house with your new neighbors isn’t a bad way to get to quickly know a neighborhood…

*Spending 10 days with the new freshman class at Cornerstone and some great student and staff leaders seeking to get them engaged spiritually and socially in the earliest days of their college experience…and I felt like I could relate rather well to them, to be honest…

*Dropping off Trey and Olivia at Orchard View School down the street from our house instead of WCGS on the day after Labor Day and trying to not cry myself walking down the new hallways with them…

*Wondering daily if we would sell our house back in West Chicago or face being separated for an undetermined amount of time…and watching God provide to meet our need, even if it wasn’t close to the selling price we first proposed…

*Going back to see old friends and finalize the move to Grand Rapids on a Homecoming weekend…and being OK with heading back to MI despite enjoying being with people we knew so well…

*Weekends with family and friends showing them our new home and the new places we’d discovered on the east side of Lake Michigan…

*Having groups of students and new friends on the CU staff into our home down the street from Cornerstone…and finding that college students were great to be with like hundreds of high school students always were…

*Discovering that “lake effect snow” was a very real deal in our new location…

*And making it through the first semester of life in our new home and being able to talk about new experiences, new friends, and new callings for our lives with thanksgiving and expectation…

As I re-read these moments, I am flooded with all kinds of emotions and memories and questions and even a few answers as I get ramped up for a busy first month of 2010 that will be spent with CU soccer players in Central America and another group of new college students in northern MI…

And to be honest, I still feel like I am in many ways going through a period of transition in my life, my job, and my faith…and I have often found myself when I am in an honest mode admitting that I definitely believe that the person in our family who has had the most difficult time making this change has been me, the one who signed up for the new gig in the first place!

There have been lots of moments over the past six months where I’ve mourned the loss of such real and caring community, the freedom and resources given to me over many years to chase down vision, and simply the familiarity and consistency found in being so grounded and connected and cared for by people whom you have experienced much with over a lengthy period of time…I’ve found that almost everyone wants and expects you to move forward without taking time to say goodbye or to grieve that which is no longer in your life in our fast-paced culture…and most of all I think it frankly was impossible to not reflect and remember and hold on to on some level the privilege we had in being part of something so richly anointed and blessed by God over a long period of years…

This year of new, this year of change has been different and been good…I’ve had moments of anxious fear wondering if this would be ultimately the right place for us; I’ve had moments of surprise as I’ve connected with and built new relationships with students and co-workers and even folks from my distant past that help build a new world in a new community; and I’ve often been reminded in the midst of prayers and struggles and joys that the presence of God is still hovering in and around and over Grand Rapids like it does in Edina, West Chicago, and other places where the Kingdom of God continues to break out in creative and noticeable ways…

As I write these thoughts of reflection, I also find myself starting to dream of what 2010 might hold…and those dreams and hopes are based on three realities I’ve discovered really are true as they have held firm in the new places God has taken me over the last six months…

1. The people who make up the church of Jesus Christ are truly people who can and often will demonstrate the love that God the Father has for each of those He has created…the followers of Jesus I’ve met in many new settings and new places have truly been life-giving in a year where you could easily feel like you had abandoned the security of belief and care and love that you wanted to bask in for the rest of your life…

2. There is nothing that will get the people that God has created in His image more quickly excited and inspired than taking steps to care for those in need in our world today…I’ve loved being able to pray for the orphans, plan trips to have our hearts broken and encouraged by the people of the Dominican Republic and Zambia, and be challenged in community by the words of Scripture that jump out and scream at us to live out our faith in sacrificial and authentic ways toward those both near and far away whom God desperately loves and wants to know Him and experience the fullness of abundant life…

3. Taking risks is in line with the character and nature of a God who is constantly on the move and up to that which we couldn’t even imagine…I’ve felt His presence despite doing something that on some days seemed to make no sense to my own heart and mind as well as the minds of those around us…and doing something new ultimately produces something in and through us which couldn’t get done without steps into the unknown…

So yes, it will be a bit strange on Saturday to not head south on 59 toward North Ave this Saturday as we drive through Chicagoland on our way home to being a new year…but I’m OK with the new route and actually have found myself expecting more changes and new adventures for the next year ahead…I am blessed with a past that gives me the courage to do that which is new…and my prayer is that I will trust in the Divine One in 2010 to such an extent that I’ll live in a way that brings honor and attention and blessing to Jesus…and I will pray for many of you that the change that comes your way will bring new life to your own heart and soul and those whom God brings across your path this year…

CHIP

John 10:10…He has come that we might have life, and have it to the full…

PRIMAL: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity by Mark Batterson

I just finished reading my first book of the holiday season, which is often a time for me to get some reading done...Mark Batterson's latest book PRIMAL (really liked his first two books as well) offered me a great reminder of the vision God ultimately calls me to pursue in 2010 and beyond as a Christ-follower...

Batterson writes about rediscovering what it means to live like the early church believers did and invites his readers to consider how the values of heartfelt compassion, soul captivating wonder, intellectual curiosity, and the strength of passionate workers can move us back to a place of intense belief and love in the God of all things...

I loved his mix of personal stories, scientific insights, and insights into the Scriptures that really made me reconsider some of my own current life patterns as a long time follower of Jesus...I found myself stirred to renew my passions to give lavishly out of a longing to meet the needs of others, to once again go to places where I see the awe of God's creation, to use my imagination to think of new ways to engage God's grand mission, and to rededicate myself to investing my energy into the completion of the tasks God has invited me to be part of doing as a servant of Jesus...

Batterson invites us all to be part of another reformation where we flesh out the Great Commandment and Commission in very fresh ways...and I found myself drawn in and inspired as a lover of Jesus...something I desperately need to feel and pursue as one who is professionally invested in ministry with the next generation...

It's worth a read early in 2010 as you contemplate what it means to live differently in the year ahead...

TIGER and the Good Life by John Ortberg

A great reflective piece on the question we all wrestle with every day...

Celebrities and obituaries offer competing definitions of what's worth pursuing.

For the moment, you cannot look at a newspaper, magazine, TV or website without running into the name Tiger Woods. What is behind our endless and growing fascination with celebrities?

Dallas Willard writes that there are four fundamental questions that every world view—and every human being—must answer. Whether we want to or not; whether we do it well or poorly, whether we've illiterate or have five Ph.D.'s, we must assume something is true about: What is real?

Who has "the good life"?

Who is a good person?

How do you become a good person?

Our preoccupation with celebrities has to do largely with question #2. We are not computers, not robots—we will inevitably pursue a life that we think is desirable. If we become convinced that the good life is unattainable to us, it can lead to despair or even suicide. Many thought leaders inside the church and outside often criticize churches for appealing to people's desire for self-fulfillment in the name of "relevance." They have a point.

But the question of who has the good life is woven into the human heart with fine stitching, and cannot be rooted out without tearing the heart itself. We cannot address it simply by pointing out how people pursue it wrongly.

We often associate the good life with access to money or pleasure or success or attractiveness. A magazine published in southern California was actually called The Good Life. Based on its ads the good life could be pursued primarily by fine dining and weight reduction, which is a little paradoxical when you think about it. (Although it's also a little Christmas-y; the fine dining comes in December and the vows for weight reduction in January). The pursuit of the good life generally involves assets that we believe celebrities possess. We are fascinated with them because we suspect they have the life we want.

When there is a mess involving a celebrity, we're fascinated because often we think that if we had all the good stuff the celebrity had we would be smarter; we would be able to enjoy the good life. Writer Alain de Botton notes one of the main differences between ancient tragedy and modern tabloid journalism is that tragedies called for us to identify with the central character—what happened to him could happen to me. Tabloid journalism invites us to pass judgment—I would never be that stupid; he must not be normal and healthy like me.

The deeper issue, though, is that no one ever entered into the good life by trying to pursue the good life. In the early days of AA, a little group around founder Bill W noticed that he was becoming increasingly enamored with the attention he was getting as the spokesman of this new movement. They warned him that the attention would become as addictive and deadly as the bottle for him. Out of this came a decision that no one would become wealthy from AA, and no one would become famous.

It's why they now only use initials instead of last names in telling their stories publicly. They decided that their fallenness meant that fame and money were spiritual forces that were simply too powerful and too dangerous for them to allow at the center of their communal motivations.

It is interesting how often the evangelical community gives rise to its own little set of celebrities; and how often money and fame (on a limited, evangelical scale) get held out as rewards, and how often they end up being destructive and leading to little scandals (on a limited, evangelical scale) in our world as well.

We live in the tension between our desire to have the good life and our desire to be good people. A fascinating place to see this tension on display is to open up a newspaper and compare advertisements with obituaries. Ads tell us: "here's how to have great hair, great teeth, great clothes, great food, great sex, great cars and great bodies." But obituaries never say: he had great hair, great teeth, great clothes, great food, great sex, great cars and a great body. We want to be good people, but we're willing to give it up to have the good life. We want to have what is offered in the ads but be what is spoken in the obituaries.

This is why the news of Jesus never goes away, and why it is good news. Jesus understood the connection between the good life (the blessed life; the life now available to people who thought they were rejects like those the meek or the mourners or the poor in spirit) was actually available to those who with God's presence and help were becoming genuinely good people.

If you work at a church, you are in the news business; and in this season once more people's hearts turn for a moment to the news that matters. May it be told well, and spread far …

The need for laughter

Words from G. K. Chesterton: "I do not know why touching the heart should always be connected only with the idea of touching it to compassion or a sense of distress. The heart can be touched to joy and triumph; the heart can be touched to amusement."