Isn’t it interesting that, often in our younger years, we feel as if we should be able to “Win the World in a Weekend!” Many of us get caught in the thinking that we have to really make a difference, make our lives count, and so we work, work work. Becoming workaholics, we disguise it as “passion,” and neglect or take for granted the things and people who really matter most.
If we are fortunate, and paying attention, as we grow and experience new things, we come to understand there’s more to life than the work we are doing. This is one of the personal stories Ed shares during this episode with Laura.
As a younger pastor, with a young and growing family, Ed had a sense that his family life was important, but more in the way of having responsibility for it rather than truly understanding it was intended to be a higher priority for his time and energy than his work in the church.
Laura asks him about a particular story he told in his book, One Small Barking Dog, about a powerful encounter with the Holy Spirit while tending to his wife who was not feeling well. The experience was beyond his imagination at the time but turned out to create a significant shift in his perspective on his “work” and what he was called to do in the world.
Ed goes on to share several nuggets of wisdom he has gleaned along the journey, including these:
- Learning is like seeds; we need to nurture them and allow them to grow within us first, before passing along what we’ve learned.
- A few minutes of stillness and quiet would re-energize him after a long day at work and before engaging with his wife and children.
- God is everywhere all the time, and often his work is hidden; we don’t get to see what’s really going on in all things around us, but there is definitely more afoot than what we see.
As Laura and Ed near the end of a conversation filled with laughter, insight, and a few Bible verses, Ed shares this thought: “Everyone is in a battle. We have no idea what other people are going through, afraid of, challenged by, or working on… Simply be kind.”
He and Laura both share stories of when an opportunity to be kind presented themselves in their respective lives and how they responded. It doesn’t take much to change the course of someone’s day if we are paying attention to what’s happening around us and who we are with. And, in fact, those simple actions may actually change the course of someone’s life for generations into the future!
Resources Mentioned:
About Ed:
Ed Gungor is a veteran pastor who focuses on philosophy, church history and current trends. He became a follower of Christ as a teenager in the early 1970’s and has been deeply involved in the spiritual formation of others for over forty years. Ed has a passion for authentic transformation; a phenomenon he feels is all too rare in today’s church.
As a kind of “church futurist,” he is constantly aware of the changing needs of the next generation of Christians, the ones who haven’t yet experienced spiritual formation. To effectively communicate the gospel to this group, he believes our notion of “destiny” in the American church needs to be re-imagined. Ed longs to see believers willing to abandon their Christianized versions of the self-important American Dream, embracing instead the miraculous, surprising, and contagious Christianity that comes when they see themselves as the servants of God who find their home with Messiah and his people, as they participate in the mission of God (missio Dei).
Ed is known for his down-to-earth, engaging communication style. With transparency and his own unique brand of wry humor, he cuts through the usual “church-speak”, gleefully slaughtering any sacred cows that distort the true message of Christ. He is the author of several books, including: Religiously Transmitted Diseases: Finding A Cure When Faith Doesn’t Feel Right; The Vow: An Ancient Path Of Spiritual Formation That Still Transforms Today; the New York Times bestseller, There is More to the Secret; and One Small Barking Dog.
Ed and his wife Gail have been married forty-two years. They have four children, eight grandchildren and live in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Ed currently serves as the Bishop of the Diocese of St. Anthony (dicoceseofstanthony.com).
