Wayne Jacobsen

I’ve always been amazed at how people who hold others to the law are usually in their closeted life the greater violators of it. I thought of that yesterday reading a comment on Facebook from a good friend of mine, Kent Burgess. He was quoting from The Shack:

“Mackenzie,” Sarayu continued, “those that are afraid of freedom are those who cannot trust us to live in them. Trying to keep the law is actually a declaration of independence, a way of keeping control.”

“Is that why we like the law so much—to give us some control?” asked Mack.

“It’s much worse than that,” resumed Sarayu. “It grants you the power to judge others and feel superior to them. You believe you are living to a higher standard than those you judge. Enforcing rules, especially in it’s more subtle expressions like responsibility and expectation, is a vain attempt to create certainty out of uncertainty. And contrary to what you might think, I have a great fondness for uncertainty. Rules cannot bring freedom; they only have the power to accuse.”

I remember working on this portion of the book and how taken I was by a relational reality that would transcend the need for rules and law, because law was the way we sought to manage people without having to relate to them in love. Law, politics, capitalism, and religion all seek to manipulate the law to gain an advantage over others. In that sense most appeals to the law are simple cowardice. By letting an advocate represent their selfish side they can still pretend to be kind and gracious.

In my work with BridgeBuilders I have seen how our legal system completely disowns all that is important to God—love, grace, mutual respect and relationship—and seeks to manipulate the letter of the law for whatever self-interest can be gained by either side. It sustains itself in an environment of distrust and suspicion and rather than seeking common ground it turns everyone into a winner or a loser. But it always sacrifices relationship on the altar of personal gain. Once something goes legal no one cares about the others involved or even the truth of what was said or done, but only how every thing can be twisted to personal advantage.

“It grants you the power to judge others and feel superior to them.”

And relationship in the world suffers every time we do that. How easy it is to write or read words like those above, and how much more difficult to actually live them in our relationships with others. Our commitment to relationship is not measured when times are good and we all agree, but where we don’t see things the same way.

Hasn’t there been enough division in this world between brothers and sisters without adding to it? The last time I got separated from a brother on this journey, I told myself I’d never let it happen again. I’d do everything in my power to fight for the joy of a relationship even if it cost me in temporal terms.

The only problem is, while it takes two softened hearts and a significant amount of time to begin to even taste the beauty of God’s kind of community, it only takes one damaged heart and a split second to destroy it. As much as it lies with you be at peace with all men, is how the writer of Hebrews put it. And that’s all we can do. But at least let’s do that. We need more peacemakers in the world, not those who would look down on others.

The recent outreach in the north regions

I got an update this week from Michael Wafula, the director of IGEM in Kenya who hosted Kent and I during our recent trip there.

Dear Brother Wayne and the team,

Thank you very much for your prayers and grate support. You have stood alongside our brother and sisters here. We had a trip to northern parts and some parts of Sudan. We thought that the mission would complete easier but the work was extending time to time. As you know the native people cannot communicate both in Swahili and English but their mother tongue. So we had to wait to get the interpreter for their local language, it was the first time for them to hear the Gospel.

We had a long mission to speak like young babies for them to understand the love of God because they believe in their ancestral power. It was very hard to reach this area because there was no transportation. It is about 950 kilometers from the place called Lodwar in Kenya. But we thank God for the vehicle you helped us to purchase, Toyota Land Cruiser. It is so dependable in unreachable areas.

In that areas there is no communication due to lack of network so we could not managed to communicate to the people at home. But now we have arrived (back in Kitale and) we have visited some of the children from the centre.

My son Sammy also was among those who were admitted some days in the hospital (for the malaria outbreak) alongside the son of Hassan and others. The bill was so high of which we are still clearing. Leonard has told me all information including Hassan on how they reach you for help. I would like to say that I feel that we are making you tired but I know God is having his own way and we want to thank you. Even brothers and sisters here send their thanks because almost every family was admitted for malaria. Leonard and other brother are now visiting every hospital to pay bills.

It is my prayer that one time we would build a hospital at least in every region to help the need. Malaria is still a deadly diseases with is claiming more lives than any other known diseases in the world especially this season of rain. Because of this, I have authorized the team to open a ministry account so that when am out or not these account will help the people affected.

I have seen how Leonard has written to you concerning mosquito nets and other helpful materials. So we are announcing and appealing to all IGEM brothers and sisters to donate whatever they have so that we may save the lives of people from malaria and typhoid.

Thank you very much you have done. Send our regards to the entire team, tell them that we love them with the love of Christ.

Michael

The rains have caused a huge outbreak of malaria in that region. Helping with hospital bills as well as procuring mosquito nets is most important now. We continue to channel funds that direction and have had nearly $27,000 donated through Lifestream since I came back from Kenya two months ago. Thank you so much for carrying these dear and desperate people on your hearts. All of that money has gone to them and we will continue to send it along as the Lord provides. Thanks to all who have given. The way many of you have responded to these people you don’t even know has warmed my heart and overflowed in great praise to God.

If you’d like to help us continue to support these brothers and sisters and see the Gospel grow in this part of Africa, please see our Sharing With the World page at Lifestream. You can either donate with a credit card there, or you can mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 1560-1 Newbury Rd #313 • Newbury Park, CA 91320. Or if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 498-7774.

A few weeks ago on a trip, I met the young couple that sent me this email. We had some time to share about some brokenness in her family and some of her disappointment at the state of those relationships. Last week I got this email sharing the rest of the story and how Father has been at work in all of them by simple acts of responding to his nudgings. I loved the story and with her permission am sharing it with you. I hope it encourages you to whatever God is doing in some of your broken relationships.

Ever since we gave our hearts to Jesus, we have always thought that we will go back to Japan (where I am from) some day to witness people. The old way of idea was about “we have to do something”,” be a part of something”, and the kind of idea came natural to us.

I have been (in the U.S.) for 16 years. My family and I haven’t have the close relationship we once had. (Many of us) think that we have to repay to God for what He has done. We have missed the most important thing, that is God simply Loves us. I am significant; you are significant; every person is significant to God. We have heard this many times before, but, through our conversation, we have come to understand that. When we discovered this, we couldn’t hold our tears back. I truly love these moments.

Well, let me update my family situation. In your e-mail, you wrote “when we no longer have to defend ourselves, some amazing things can happen with other people.” Somehow, I couldn’t get that out of my mind. Finally, I decided to talk to my grandfather. Honestly, I have been a younger son in the story of the prodigal son. I didn’t ask him in the way that the younger son did at the beginning of the story, but,grandfather was willing to help me out for my tuition, when I left home. I was supposed to go back home in one year and get a job to repay him.

Well, my life took a different turn. I got married and for long time, I wasn’t able to work here in U.S. with the immigration issue that I had. Long story short I hadn’t kept my promise with my grandfather (and) my mother used that against me to play her power games. I finally was able to apologize to my grandfather for not keeping my promise. (I really don’t know why it took me THIS long time to talk to him about this issue.) The response I got was, “That’s OK, honey.” In the sense that he had forgotten all about that for a long time. Moreover, he asked me to visit him soon. (He offered the trip cost) The reconciliation was sweet.

I was sitting on the couch, just in the awe about this whole thing. There’s a little nudge in my heart, “Have you read this story that just happened before?”

Yes… the story of the prodigal son. I realized that my grandfather just showed me the same unconditional love, and was still waiting for me. I have never dreamed of that kind of love. The story became alive in my heart! Well, my mother will not be able to play her game with me any longer. I feel so relieved, but I need to rebuild relationship with her. (Still I have no clue…) I’m on this journey for only 5 months, I am thrilled to get to know Him.

Sometimes something as simple as a phone call can shine the light of God’s healing in the most troubling of circumstances and disarm the attempts of the enemy to drive people further apart and deeper into the darkness. Not only can it promote healing with those we’ve felt cut off from, but it will reveal some wonderful insights about Father’s love.

Last week in Nashville I stayed with a family that is unique to say the least. This is my second time being in their home and I think some of you would enjoy knowing them, especially if you’re a frazzled mom or a parent of a child with learning differences. Jay and Theresa Lode are on a great God journey and Theresa is a humor writer whose books have touched quite a few people. She is very active in helping encourage and enlighten parents who find that the conformity systems we put our kids through as a culture do not work for every child, and can be destructive to some. She maintains a blog at The Mother Lode, which offers humorous straight talk on on learning differences and family life. You’ll also find two of her books there, Putting the Fun Back in DysFUNctional, which is as series of humorous observations on family life, and an ebook about A Parent to Parent Chat on ADHD. You can’t hang out with the Lode’s and not get in some good laughs while being encouraged through some of the difficult stretches of your journey.

These two words, “living loved” have come to express the passion of my heart and the sum of how I hope my life encourages people through writing, podcasts or in conversations. For me, living loved is not a mantra or a theology to espouse. At it’s simplest and most powerful, it is a reality to live in.

And I love how much God is sharing that with the world today. There are many voices talking about the love and grace of our Father and how the coming of Jesus changed everything about how we get to live in him. I love that no singular human is leading this parade and that many brothers and sisters are coming to discover it together.

What does frustrate me most, however, is knowing that some who can write or speak in eloquent terms about Father’s love, even moving crowds to tears, do not reflect that love in how they treat others. Living in the freedom of Father’s love shows up in your relationships—and not just those who benefit you, but those you consider the least or the last, or even those you presume to be your enemies. I am convinced that the depth of our character is most demonstrated by how we treat those who disagree with us when we’re most sure that we are right. Do we treat them gently, give them the opportunity to engage, and offer them the same grace we talk about with others? As Jesus said, it is wholly inconsistent for those who have received great love and forgiveness to grab anyone else by the throat and demand their satisfaction.

What I love about living loved as opposed to just talking about it, is that it is transformational. Those who are well-loved, love others well in good times and bad always valuing the relationship above their own perspective. This is not something you can learn by principle, but by embracing God’s affection at the deepest place in your soul. Until you know you are loved you will be sucked into every religious activity and performance treadmill that exists, hoping against hope that you can do the right thing to merit that deep affection from the heart of the Father.

But you already have his affection! The great lie of the universe is that you are not loved by the Creator of all. The question is only do you realize how loved you are? If not, that’s where the journey begins. He wants to teach you that and in the process untwist in you what has distorted his love or has blinded you to it.

I’m off this week to upstate NY to spend a weekend with some dear friends and to share about living loved. But this week we’re going to add something that has been growing in my heart over the last year and that is not just to spend time helping people learn to live loved, but also to spend some time equipping people who are already learning to live loved, to help others learn as well.

I am meeting more people on this journey who are living loved who also have a heart to help others. But if they are not writers or speakers, how do that do that? Since many have thrown out all the conventions often associated with organized religion, they are unsure how their passion to equip others applies outside the box. We’re going to spend part of Friday talking with some people who want to have that conversation. I’m excited about what may come of that. There is a need for far more workers in the fields helping people embrace the reality of living loved.

Surely the best way to equip people around you is by the example we live when we’re not trying and the conversations we have with people who are struggling to discover what it is to live loved. But there is also the need to help equip others with the instruction that sustains that walk and the encouragement to dive in and sample its wonders, without reducing it to principles and boring lectures.

If you’d like to join us in Lowville this weekend, come ahead! I know it’s late notice, but I’ve been heavily distracted by the unfolding circumstances of life. If not, let’s look for more opportunities to have that kind of conversation as I travel about and deal with others.

I’m still in Nashville finishing up with some business meetings today. Brad and I have had some amazing times with people all over the spiritual map on their journeys and have been encouraged and blessed by the choices people are making to live free even in the face of sometimes painful consequences. We even recorded our first live podcast with a room full of people who jumped in with us. We’ll post that in the next couple of weeks. While I always get to spend time on the road with amazing people, I always look forward to heading home. That will happen tomorrow.

I’m sure people are going to get tired of me sharing the needs in Kenya. I’m sorry to do that to those of you who just need some encouragement or provision in your own lives these days. And please, don’t feel any guilt whatsoever if God has not put it in your heart to be of help or if you don’t have the means to do so right now. Like anything else, if God wants you involved it will be a joy to do so, not a frustration or a guilted conscinece. But I got this email this morning and these are boys I know, most of them orphans. I was in their home the man who wrote this letter cared for Kent and I over the five days we were in Kitale.

Receive greetings from Kenya. I thank God for the wonderful time we were together with you in Kitale. Your conference has changed people here and teachings has changed people and there is a great change for everybody here. I want to share with you that I have tried to find your email and I am not familiar to communicate through internet but the secretary has helped me to communicate with you. The director and other people went to the northern part of Kenya near Sudan for preaching to the people there who have not been getting the word of God a long time but the problem is that when they were out almost nine children in the children’s home including one of the workers came under heavy attack of malaria and typhoid. I have tried to communicate with the people who went for the mission through phone but I cannot reach them due to heavy rain , the children have been admitted in hospital for three days now including my little child.

The Doctors wanted the initial deposit of 28,000 Kenyan schillings (about $400.00) before they continue with the treatment and I don’t know what to do. I am sending this information without the permission of anybody and the way I know you as a man of love the time I was with you here. The malaria has gone around the country especially this heavy rain season. These are the names of the children who are admitted: Edwin, Mateka, Deno, Brian, Martin, Sammy, Faith, Nelly, and my little child Enos

God bless you so much as I wait to hear from you,

Hassan

In a posting I put up last week, I also shared another need for mosquito nets and food, totally almost $20,000.00. Really, these people truly have nothing. They have never received money from anyone outside Kenya before coming in touch with us and have so few options. The combination of the violence many suffered two years ago the poverty of their region, and now the rains and diseases that come with it continue to pile upon them. Simply these are life and death issues, and they are so used to death.

I continue to encourage them to look to God and not to Lifestream. He is their provider and he wants them to grow in their dependence on him, not me and my friends. But I also know that this is an incredible opportunity for some of our abundance to flow to a need around the world where every dime actually helps someone subsist today and perhaps find a future to take care of themselves.

We will be sending some money over today. If you’d like to help us with any of these needs, from medical to food to mosquito nets, please see our Sharing With the World page at Lifestream. You can either donate with a credit card there, or you can mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 1560-1 Newbury Rd #313 • Newbury Park, CA 91320. Or if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 498-7774.

Thank you for your consideration and prayers.

After my recent blog about Buck’s passing, I received an email from an old friend, posing a question that had been on her mind:

I find it difficult to understand why God wouldn’t graciously extend his hand to give Buck more years beyond what he had. Tragedy is something that I struggle with much in the faith. So while most would look at the scenario and say that God is good for giving Buck another 15 years of life, I look at it and say why doesn’t the good God give more? I am reading your book HE LOVES ME right now and the illustrations are helping to grow my faith. But, so often, I look at what is tragic in peoples lives, and have difficulty praising in the midst of circumstance. My propensity is to run the other direction when hard times hit and say that its proof that God’s love isn’t real.

My response: I think God may not have given more because he knows the better portion isn’t in this life. It is in the life beyond.

Would you have enjoyed 15 more years as a 15 year old? It would have seemed crazy right? God has prepared us for something so much better than what we know here. We think of a 69 year old dying as tragic, and it is for those of us who miss him, but from God’s side of things I’m sure it doesn’t look tragic at all. He’s finally brought my friend into the life he created him to live in without the distortions of the flesh or the stain of our sin. So from God and my friend’s side of this it is all glorious and our hope is that we will be joining them soon ourselves.

The tragedy is for us here now. And in the midst of that tragedy I don’t think God wants us to praise him for the tragedy, but to learn to lean into him because he’s bigger than any tragedy and can work amazing good even out of a the most horrendous things. His work still goes on. His purpose in our lives is not thwarted by the deaths of others. He still embraces us here as he continues to prepare us for the greater life he has for us all.

Our limited perspective is the problem here. We only see what’s here. Scripture says there is much wisdom in realizing that our time in this age is like the morning dew on the grass. It is brief in the grand scheme of things. It is not the whole thing, only a bit. We don’t have a clue what lies beyond the veil and how much life in this world with flesh, human ambition, limited sight suffocates that which God has really made us to be.

All of his aspirations for us, and all the healthy ones for ourselves, will never be fulfilled in this life.

Well, I’m off to the Nashville area with Brad tomorrow. We’re doing a retreat together this weekend for the first time so that should be interesting. Plus we have a number of other personal and business meetings there as well. I’ve also got some new trips planned to Lowville, NY and to Macon, MS over the next few weeks. There are more details on my Travel Page for those interested.

I also heard from our friends in Kenya. This is from Leonard (pictured with me at left) who overseas their work with the orphan children. I thought you’d appreciate his perspective:

Thank you very much for the wonderful moment we had with you and Brother Kent. My brother, you actually encouraged us. We did not expect to see someone with a great love of God like you brother. For being a simple man and flexible, a man with great love. Even before we met you Michael said how he had been changed with your message of loving others and we have seen this in his life. Michael, can forget himself and sometimes his family to give to other people. Any support you have been sending, he has never taken even a single cent if not instructed. But he has been also using his bricks project to help others.

So we appreciate brothers and for God to channel this IGEM Ministry for the needy. We do not have any doubt whatever you have been given has been distributed for what we had planned. We also appreciate for the new car. God has finally answered our prayer and we have not experienced any breakdown of this vehicle. It is very special that can also be owned by Ministers in Kenya. It can move anywhere regardless of the terrain. Our insurance is expiring and we need to renew at considerable cost. We appreciate that God will provide even before the expiring date.

About the children, I am working out with my fellow team and we will send you the information. As we have been making the evaluation, there are lots of problems especially for malaria, typhoid and hunger. If there is a way to help this starving families, My brother do so. We need to buy mosquito net for every family especially this rainy season. Michael have been taking different families to the hospital every week. And Mt. Elgon is far more worse than everywhere else. So your support will highly be appreciated now. May God bless you.

We awed and grateful for the many of you who have contributed to help these dear people and their families in the northwest part of Kenya. If you’d like to help us with the insurance, mosquito nets and food for those families that don’t have it, please see our Sharing With the World page at Lifestream. You can either donate with a credit card there, or you can mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 1560-1 Newbury Rd #313 • Newbury Park, CA 91320. Or if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 498-7774.

Thank you for keeping these people in your heart and prayers.

I read this the yesterday in THE MESSAGE and it was such a wonderful reminder of where life really happens:

Listen carefully to what I am saying—and be wary of the shrewd advice that tells you how to get ahead in the world on your own.

Giving, not getting, is the way.

Generosity begets generosity. Stinginess impoverishes. (Mark 4:24-25)

I love the way Jesus thinks. It is polar opposite to the way we were all trained to do things. We even think that generosity can only happen after we get enough for ourselves first. But Jesus said that living generously is the way to live in the world because it will inspire others to do the same and the world becomes a more gentle place.

But the more we grab for ourselves what we think we deserve, or ignore or belittle others around us in pursuit desire to grasp for ourselves, the more impoverished we become. All conflict and disappointed expectations originate in grasping what God hasn’t given us.

And this goes way beyond money. It’s about our time, talents. and attention as well. The more we focus on ourselves and our needs the more we are swallowed up by our own ambitions and even if successful in outward terms, we end up in a very dark and lonely place.

Of course there is no human way to live generously unless we first are secure in the reality that God is caring for us. When you know he is, then you no longer have to fight for what he hasn’t given. Then we can let Jesus show us how to live with open heart and open hands to people around us, seeking their blessing and joy even above our own. That enriches us and it makes us enriching in the world.

Life is not about our own comfort or joy; it’s about giving gifts to others—our help, friendship, support, time and talents. All the good stuff in life flows from that simple reality. According to Jesus that’s the way to really live. Self-pursuit sucks the world into us and destroys who we are. Generosity is about blessing others and that flow is filled with life and grace and joy that knows no limit.

At 57 years of age, I’m more inclined to agree with him than ever!

Since many of you don’t read the comments on these blogs, I wanted to highlight a question someone asked on the last one about my friend’s funeral:

What does God’s presence feel like? What do you mean when you say ‘God’s presence came powerfully into the room’? It’s one of those phrases that when people mention it, leaves me empty, because I don’t understand. It makes me wonder if I’m really getting all this God stuff or am doing something wrong. I mean it seems it’s a key thing yet I don’t get it. I think I have the spiritual capacity of a marshmallow!!

I get that question a lot, so I think others might be interested in my answer to her:

God’s presence “feels like” different things to different people, and even different ways in different circumstances. I don’t want to describe it as a feeling, because it goes way beyond that. At its heart it is a simple knowing that something greater than us is making his presence known in the room. That can be accompanied by supernatural events, a simple inner knowing, or the affirmation of what a number of people are sensing at the same moment.

For us at that hospital bed it was a powerful sense of connection with him and each other. It added a lightness to the room that was more spiritually seen than physically seen. It manifested itself in the lightness of heart and trust that we all sensed afterward, very different from when we went in. But it doesn’t always look like that, which is why I hesitate to define it. I find people recognize him less when they are burdened down by expectations of what it should look like. Then we are looking for manifestations, rather than simply seeking him.

For many people it isn’t so much that God isn’t making himself known, it’s that they haven’t yet tuned to his frequency to recognize his voice or his fingerprints in the simple realities around them. I think most of God’s supernatural working appears to be incredibly natural as it unfolds. Looking back we see with greater clarity what he was doing…