Posts Tagged ‘just thinking…’

That is an attitude adjustment! It’s funny how when I’m out “raising support” (or I should say “Ministry Partner Development”) how God shows up and blesses me in different ways. I hope to take some time in the near future to write more about this, but I wanted to share a poem with you that I heard recently when I was sharing at a young adults’ group, that God used to give me a bit of an attitude adjustment. Here’s the poem…

HIMSELF
by A. B. Simpson
Once it was the blessing, Now it is the Lord;
Once it was the feeling, Now it is His Word.
Once His gifts I wanted, Now the Giver own;
Once I sought for healing, Now Himself alone.

Once ’twas painful trying, Now ’tis perfect trust;
Once a half salvation, Now the uttermost.
Once ’twas ceaseless holding, Now He holds me fast;
Once ’twas constant drifting, Now my anchor’s cast.

Once ’twas busy planning, Now ’tis trustful prayer;
Once ’twas anxious caring, Now He has the care.
Once ’twas what I wanted, Now what Jesus says;
Once ’twas constant asking, Now ’tis ceaseless praise.

Once it was my working, His it hence shall be;
Once I tried to use Him, Now He uses me.
Once the power I wanted, Now the Mighty One;
Once for self I labored, Now for Him alone.

Once I hoped in Jesus, Now I know He’s mine;
Once my lamps were dying, Now they brightly shine.
Once for death I waited, Now His coming hail;
And my hopes are anchored, Safe within the vail.

I bolded the section that God used specifically in my heart to give this, previously mentioned, attitude adjustment. Those past actions – busy planning, caring, wanted, constant asking – that Simpson spoke of were, and maybe are still, things that I’m dealing with while I’m back in the States, trusting God to provide for me, so that I, and my ministry partners, can continue to make a difference in Prague, Czech, Europe and Beyond! Since I heard this poem, I’ve returned to it several times and I have been reminded of Jesus’ love for me and work in my life.

How about you? Did God use this to give you an attitude adjustment?

Thanks for stopping by! As always, BE A REVOLUTION!

“He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.” (1 Thes. 5:24 ESV)

Recently I was asked to share what God has been teaching me as of late and I quickly replied with three words – GOD IS FAITHFUL.

There is nothing earth-shattering about this, is there? No. It’s a truth about God that I have seen and known for years, but in the midst of my life over the last couple of years I have forgotten this truth that is, indeed, earth-shattering! See in the midst of betrayal, slander, lies, disappointments, selfishness, people not holding their comments and the like (These are a few of the things that I have struggled through in the past couple years.), we forget that God is faithful. I’m not sure why, but I forget this and some how, some way, God always brings me back. Brings me back to the realization that He is faithful and all he requires of me, is that I am faithful back and He will take care of the rest!
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What can I grandfather impart to his grandson?

I’ve been asking these questions, and more, since my mom called me last week, with the news that my grandfather (or G-Pa as I like to say, it’s his gangsta name.) passed away, peacefully, in his sleep – “What did my grandfather, Robert Shisler, impart to me? What in my life can I see is a direct result of my Grandfather’s presence in my life?”

We all process death and grieving differently, but I have been fighting to find these things, as well as fighting to cling to the great memories of my G-Pa that I have, rather than feel sorry for myself and my family. I think this is what my G-Pa would have wanted from me, if I would have asked him, how he would want me to grieve and remember him. My G-Pa was a man of few words, but his actions, life and how he lived spoke volumes to me throughout my 31 years of knowing him.

I thought it would be great to remember him here on my blog and I hope that this will, in some way, be a challenge for me and you to consider these values and characteristics in our lives!

So here we go… A few things that my G-Pa, Robert Shisler, imparted to his oldest grandchild…
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Since my grandfather passed last week, I’ve been considering legacy and what it means to have a lasting legacy. It’s been rather introspective and I think that it has been healthy for me. Asking yourself questions like, “What do I want my legacy to be?” or “If I were to leave this world today, what would be legacy be, how would people remember me?”, can produce change and resolve in your life. I had begun thinking about this as I sat on the 10 hour flight from Munich to Chicago on Wednesday, but yesterday waking up to the news of Václav Havel passing was another wave hitting me. (Havel was the first president of Czechoslovakia and then Czech Republic after the fall of communism, as well as a notable dissident that helped lead to the collapse of communism in then Czechoslovakia. Here’s a wiki page on him.)

I never met Havel, although I wish I could have met him, but his legacy and life impacted this kid from Lake Geneva, WI that lives, and calls home, Havel’s homeland. Sadly, some over look the impact Havel had and some question it. Or better, some question the man himself. I’m not claiming the Havel was a saint, he was a broken man like you and I, but there have been a few Czechs throughout history (another couple are Jan Hus and Jan Amos Komenský, or John Amos Comenius, to just name a couple.) that I admire and I pray that there would be more Czechs like them. Czechs that exhibit and embody the same values and qualities that made these Czechs heroes!

My director, wrote on Facebook last night, “Where are the Havels of this generation?” I would love to see “Havels” of this generation, “Havels” that aren’t concerned about themselves, but their countrymen and strive for higher virtues than “what’s best for me.” To my Czech friends, and non-Czech friends too, I would challenge you all to honor the legacy of Havel, by striving for, living out and embodying the ideas, values and virtues that made Havel the culture changer that he was! That is honoring his legacy! Yes, mourn and remember him, but remember him and honor him, by being the change that the Czech Republic so badly needs! By the way, my prayer is that the same passion that was seen last night on Wenceslas Square and throughout Prague, and the country, would be put into practice and lived out with passion! Here’s a moving video of last night’s celebrations of Havel, his life and his passing.

I have watched that video several times. As I watch it I pray for the country, I call home now, that something deep will happen. I pray that God would use the passing of this influential man to change the Czech Republic and ultimately draw more people to Himself. Please pray with me to this extent!

Here’s a couple of notable quotes from the man who helped change the course of history in the Czech Republic:

“Love and truth must triumph over hate and lies.”

“The tragedy of modern man is not that he knows less and less about the meaning of his own life, but that it bothers him less and less.”

“Man is in fact nailed down — like Christ on the Cross — to a grid of paradoxes . . . he balances between the torment of not knowing his mission and the joy of carrying it out, between nothingness and meaningfulness. And like Christ, he is in fact victorious by virtue of his defeats.”

“The only lost cause is one we give up on before we enter the struggle.”

“You do not become a “dissident” just because you decide one day to take up this most unusual career. You are thrown into it by your personal sense of responsibility, combined with a complex set of external circumstances. You are cast out of the existing structures and placed in a position of conflict with them. It begins as an attempt to do your work well, and ends with being branded an enemy of society.”

That’s just scratching the surface of the quotes you can find, click here to find more.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been listening nonstop to a song from Folk Angel’s new Christmas album. The name of the song is God With Us, but honestly it’s not a song but a poem about God being with us. As I listened to the track nonstop in Prague over the last two weeks, what stood out to be the most was the longing of the Israelites for the Messiah.

I pondered… “How would they have felt?” As I thought and prayed through this, I realized to a lesser degree I can understand how they felt as I long for an “Advent” (ad·vent/?ad?vent/ The arrival of a notable person, thing, or event.) of sorts in the Czech Republic. I labor and labor. I pray and pray. I love and love. I speak and speak. I listen and listen. Yet I haven’t seen the “Advent” that I yearn for to the hearts of the Czech people. So this song/poem ministered to me in this way for the last two weeks…

Then Tuesday at 5 pm my vonage line (American line via the net) rang and my crying mother was on the other end of the line. Honestly over the past couple months I’ve had a nervous feeling, every time that phone has rang, and it was for this reason. I learned quickly that my grandfather, Bob Shisler, passed away in his sleep Tuesday morning. He has slowed down over the last couple of years and had issues that most elderly people have, but this was unexpected to all of us. Since Tuesday the words of this poem/song have hit me in a much different way!

I’m hurting. My family is hurting. It’s been hard to see my mother morning and even harder hearing my grandmother’s grieving voice, but this amazing truth – God with us – has moved me. Jesus hasn’t left me alone in this. He’s in the midst of it all. He’s here. So as we are in the midst of “Advent Season” this year, this simple, but overwhelming truth, will take on a whole new meaning for me and my family. Please listen to this song, meditate on it and realize that God is with us! He is with us!

This past Monday, I met with my director, and great friend, Billy, and in our two hours together a ministry leader, whom we both know, was brought up in conversation. I was surprised to hear that he is pastoring a church of over 4,000 and has written a book! I jokingly said, “Oh Billy we could write a book too!” He responded, “About what?” Then we went on to lay out a quick, rough table of contents for a book about faithfulness in ministry, when you don’t see results! We aren’t sure that people would be into a book on this topic, but it got us thinking, moreover, it really got me thinking about faithfulness.

First off, it got me thinking about how the world we live in, no matter what country we are in, doesn’t value faithfulness. How often do we hear the statistics about marital affairs and divorce? I can’t count the number of times I’ve read about this or heard it come from peoples’ mouths. Or how often do you see family quarrels break families up? How often do you see life-time friends end their friendship over something so trite? This isn’t even bringing up politicians or the business world! Simply put, we as a human race, aren’t a faithful people. Some of us might “get it” more than others, but I’ll be honest with you, on my “best day” of faithfulness, I’m surely still lacking!

Over the last year, I’ve wrestled with the lack of faithfulness of many. I’ve been shocked to see people turn their backs on longtime friends, simply for what was best for them. It’s wrecked me. As I’ve walked, or I should say crawled, through this time, I’ve grown to prize faithfulness more than ever before. I value it more in relationship, in ministry, and more. I long for my own heart to get, what it means to be faithful and that, Lord-willing, as God enables faithfulness in me, it would spread to those, He has placed around me.

I’ve been in Prague, long-term, for going on 4 years. I’m often praised for my faithfulness, as people hear how hard the language, how many Czechs say their atheists, how long it takes for them to respond to the Gospel and so on. As I hear this, a feeling of self-righteousness creeps up on me and I need to realize, that I am the most miserable of faithless people apart from my Savior. As I’ve contemplated, this conversation with Billy this week, a verse from 2 Timothy has been hanging around my head.

“If we are faithless, he remains faithful.” (2 Timothy 2:13)

I’m that faithless individual, but He is faithful! He remains faithful. Then the new Shawn McDonald album (Closer) came out on Tuesday and I’ve listened to this song on repeat.

Listen to the words… Let them kick around in your head a bit. Be thankful, that even though we are a faithless people, He is faithful!

A couple of months ago, we had our Area Staff Conference for all of Campus Crusade in Eastern Europe and Russia in Slovenia. It was encouraging to escape the gray winter of Prague for warmer temps and also a change of scenery (see pics), but it was more encouraging to see friends and also receive some encouragement from these same friends!

Over the last 16 months I have been though a roller coaster of heartbreak, failings, and more. Honestly, it’s felt like more than I can handle. Thankfully, God is big and has kept me standing and moving forward through it all, but in the midst of all of this I’ve learned that I need to preach the Gospel to myself. While, in Slovenia, I was once again challenged to preach to myself as I move through life and ministry in a hard place.

A friend of mine challenged me to preach three things to myself on a regular basis:

1. God is sovereign.
2. God is good, in the midst of it all. Even when it seems dark and that God isn’t in the midst of it all, preach to myself that God knows and He is still good. This sounds “Sunday schoolish,” but I do forget often that God is good. Thus the need to preach it to myself again and again.
3. God is my advocate, He is for me in all of life and in all of these events (think 1 John 1). Again maybe “Sunday schoolish,” but I can see a pattern in my life where I forget that God is for me, He is my advocate, even when the “wicked” prosper (Jeremiah 12:1 and Psalm 73, GOD IS STILL MY ADVOCATE!)

So how about you? What truths of God and the Gospel do you have to preach yourself? Use the comments and let’s start a discussion on this, I’m interested in hearing if this hits home with others and what you might add to the conversation!

Be a Revolution and Preach the Revolutionary Love of Jesus to yourself….!

Last year I wrote 29 reflections/highlights/insights/things and the year before I wrote 28 reflections, now I bring you 30 reflections/highlights/insights/things! I can’t believe the “big 3-0″ hits today! Unreal! As I wrote earlier in the week, I’m actually not fearing it and I’m actually looking forward to it. Why? Here is one reason why….

The years teach much which the days never knew. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

This reminds me of sitting in Pastor Michael’s office, during one of our Monday morning discipleship sessions, reflecting on something (which was normal, as he would spiritually kick my butt time and time again!) and looking at him and saying, “I just wish I could get old fast!” Kind of strange coming from the mouth of a college student, but then again it wasn’t for me. It was sometime during college that I realized growth, maturity and wisdom can’t be forced. It develops over time in the heart, mind and life of an individual. It takes time. It was then that I realized the years are a great teacher. So here’s to another year and another decade behind me and a just a tad bit more wisdom, growth and maturity hopefully to my life! Oh yeah, the learning might just be beginning, if this quote is true…

Everything I know I learned after I was thirty. – Georges Clemenceau

1. Number 1, has to be what I just wrote! I’m excited to welcome this new 30-something chapter to my life because it seems to bring a whole new set of adventures and lessons to my life!
2. I have absolutely beautiful and stunning sisters, that every year continue to amaze me with their beauty, talents, creativity and so much more! I love you Megs and Miks!

3. My parents seem to become cooler and cooler with everyday I know them. I can’t quite describe this. They have always been my biggest cheer leaders, but they seem to become greater and greater with age! They amaze me. Thank you Mom and Dad! I’m thankful I was conceived 30 years and 9 months ago!
4. Even though age brings wisdom, years also break hurts. I think the 29th year of my life, might have brought more emotional hurts than the previous short 28 years. Many events transpired over the last year that brought me to my knees in tears and also in prayer! Most of these events, I of course, wish I wouldn’t have had to deal with, but then on the other hand I’m grateful for them. Doesn’t make sense does it? At least not by the world’s standards, it doesn’t make sense! But if God does exist and is indeed sovereign then each hurt, betrayal and etc. had a purpose, it wasn’t some random event that happened at the result of broken people, including me! (Romans 8:28) Therefore, I am grateful for the hurts that the 29th year brought, because God was working for His Glory and my good in the midst of it all!
5. I love traveling. Every time I’m traveling, I feel at home! I love it! New places, new faces, new cultures and more of seeing God’s beauty expressed all over the world! (below: Nerja, Spain & New York, New York)

6. Much to my mother’s displeasure, I’m still accepting applications for this position! (see below) (I listened to my mother tell me, at least, once again, this week, that she would like grandkids sooner than later! Haha! You’ll have to talk to Megs and Tom about that one mom!)

7. In my 29th year I discovered that the “coaching blood” of my father also flows in my veins! Last year, because of several situations, I became the head coach of the Prague Lions Junior Team and I couldn’t have asked for a better first season as a head coach! We only had one loss and it was by a mere two points. Then we went on to have one of the biggest comebacks in Czech football history and then repeated this in the Championship game to reclaim the crown! What a huge blessing! I’m stoked about our fall season! GO LIONS!
8. The Czech Republic celebrated 20 years of freedom from communism last November and as I was in the midst of the crowd I had a this overwhelming longing to see another revolution in this country! This isn’t anything new, I’ve said this before, but being in a throng of Czechs celebrating political and social freedom, made me long for a deeper change here. Please continue to pray for the Czech Republic, pray that this revolution would take place!

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I had intended to get a post up entitled, “the last month of my 20s…” but sadly that moment passed, but I couldn’t let the moment pass to blog on the last week of my 20s. It’s actually been a fun year of being 29 and being around many people (my players) that are much younger and hearing their youthful jeers of me nearing the big 3-0. It’s also been a year of looking forward to what my 30s will bring and embracing the 30 number and knowing that before I know it I will be blogging “the last week of my 30s” (If blogs even exist in 10 years!)! With that realization, I’ve refused to be one of those in the twilights of his 20s that is “drowning in his pool of twenty something self-pities!” So with this last week of my 20s, I’ll embrace being a twenty something for but a few more days and moreover I’ll revel in being a thirty something sooner than later!

“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” -Mark Twain

My players (I’m working with guys as young as 14), have asked me does it scare me, that I’ll be 30 soon. Again this is coming from a teenager, but they are serious. I have twenty something friends who have the same questions. It’s been comedic at times and it has made me ask, “What will it be like not be a twenty something?” But the quote from Mark Twain above seems to sum up how I feel, in that I really don’t mind it. It’s is also amazing, when I see this played out in the lives of many oldER people in my life, who really don’t care how old they are but continue to live in such a beautiful way! So I say to the big 3-0, that will roll into my life Sunday – “BRING IT!” So here’s to “mind over matter!” Have a great week and no matter how old you are BE A REVOLUTION & MAKE A DIFFERENCE THIS WEEK!

I’ve caught lots of grief from friends, both in Prague and in the States, about my twitter (Don’t know what Twitter is? Where have you been living? Sorry for the sarcasm, here’s an explanation.) habit over the last year or so. It’s actually been pretty entertaining at times. I’ve been “defrieneded” on facebook (because I send my tweets to fb) due to my tweeting habit and then I’ve had others say they love it. Quite a contrast, isn’t it? In the midst of this, I’ve actually grown to enjoy twitter and the positives of tweeting and being on twitter. Here are some of the positive that come to my mind (I’m not trying to be a twitter evangelist, but you can read others for that.):

• Feeling connected with friends that are an ocean away.

• Being able to pray for those friends as they are doing life and ministry. I know I can do this without Twitter, but it’s a good reminder.

• People standing with me in prayer. It’s cool knowing that when I tweet there are people that will read it and lift me or that request up in that moment.

• Being challenged theologically, biblically and so much more. I love that I have such a difference people, whom I follow, that are constantly challenging me through their short 140 character messages.

• It’s taught me to be brief, well briefer, or should I say getting to the point, if that’s possible! Those of you that know me, know that I’m not one who is lost for words ofter, and I struggle with being concise. Well 140 characters, let’s say, is a bit of challenge for me.

• It’s entertaining. I follow some people that just make me laugh. Living in Prague and the challenges that it can present, I find myself needing to laugh more. Twitter brings laughs through some hilarious people.

Those are some great things, yeah? But I’ve also seen negatives of the world of tweeting and those are why I did my short week plus tweet detox. Here are the negatives for me:

• It consumes my life. I find myself not wanting to miss a tweet and in not wanting to miss a tweet, I can live on on twitter (actually my iPhone). This is the main reason I said, “I need a tweet detox.”

• With it being time consuming, I don’t want to look at a screen more than the faces of people in front of me! So it can rob me of relational time. I want to engage the person, who is actually in front of me, in conversation, with my heart and not stare as some well-picked profile pic.

• Tweeting can lead me from my identity in Christ and who I actually am. I can fine, or have found myself, worried about being some of other guy – who will wow people, make me people roll laughing, make people ponder the deepest of thoughts and so on. I have found myself trying to reinvent who I am, because of others, instead of simply being me, Zach Harrod.

There is why I did my detox. Some of you out there, might think I’m needing some professional help. No worries, I don’t think I am addicted and I think where I am is actually very healthy. However, needless to say, I needed to step away. I needed to see, what life was like without twitter. If I could do it in a healthy and redemptive manner. I was led to asking this, because recently I’ve had good friends hang up there tweeting (or fb) cleats and have called it quits because social networking was consuming them. I give these friends credit that they acknowledged it was affecting them in negative ways. With that said, I think my week plus, was enough to strip me of the negatives of my tweeting, enough to me, to still do relationship with those around me and live in a way that is healthy, while still tweeting. It’s actually been more refreshing since the detox, I don’t feel the pressure to tweet or to read every tweet. I also can actually enjoy twitter redemptively now! Who knew that was possible?!?! No if I could only get back on the blog train and write regularly! We shall see… Thanks for stopping by!