Encounter

Posted on January 23, 2012 by admin

Hi Friends!
Did you ever see a movie that left such an impression on you that you just had to tell somebody? You got out of the theater (or maybe even during the movie), you had to start tweeting about it, calling people up, facebooking friends about it. Did you ever have a life experience with your family that left you reliving it with a big smile on your face over and over again? Or perhaps someone ripped you off or left you slighted… ever go to a friend and just have to tell them the whole story about what happened to you? It’s interesting that in this culture we tend to wear what happens to us in visual and verbal ways. When we have an encounter it leaves us moved. We have a natural reaction to what just happened, sometimes good, sometimes not so good – but somehow or other, we let people know.

One of the things that we tend to do, living in the crazy pace of December, is just soak up information. What time is the mall open till? When is that basketball practice? If this happens at work now, can I get home in time… Information, helps us make the decision so I can do as much as and as efficiently as possible. While information becomes the driving way to do life, it all too often leaves us failing to have a real “Encounter”… with people and with Jesus. My prayer for all of us this December… this Advent… this Christmas… is that we don’t simply take in the information about Jesus, stuff it away and check it off our list, but that God rocks our world so greatly that we have an encounter with the Savior, our King of Kings, our Redeemer, our Promised Messiah our “God With Us”. The kind of encounter where we just have to tell someone about it, how it moved us, how it gave us peace, how it challenged us, how it rocked our pride and our depression and our busyness.

That there was ONE moment in this time of preparing, that we sat in humble quietness with the God who made us, who holds us, who loves us despite our many imperfections and the sin that can make our lives so ugly… the God who gives us real life… That from that quiet encounter, causes in our hearts a crescendo of praise with an Amen, an Alleluia that overflows into our work places, our families, our neighborhoods, our churches such that the people around us also encountered Jesus, maybe even through us bringing Jesus to them. As we live for a risen and reigning King who has told us “Behold I am Coming Soon – my reward is in my hand”, I’d love to invite you to take a look at John chapter 4 and the Encounter the woman at the well had with her Savior and how she responded to it. May you and I encounter our Jesus now and every day.

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Peace and Change

Posted on September 12, 2011 by admin

Hey All!
Happy Labor Day and just like that welcome to fall at least for us in the north. Even in the south where it’s still way too hot, you can feel it in the air and you can see it when you look at your watch or your phone and realize it seems a lot darker than it used to be at that same time a week ago. Even the hot weather seems eerily different as the seasons begin to turn. And it’s often when change begins, of which we can’t avoid, that we start to really look hard at where we’ve been and where we are right now, trying to understand what the change means for our future. I wonder if God has set the seasons in place to remind us how life on this earth does not stay the same, but that despite that change, the reality of the cross and empty grave… Jesus Victory over sin and death, means that the Love of God does not change.

There are a lot of stories being shared in the wake of an autumn day that changed life in America for many of us. For my generation 9/11 was a defining moment and it says that though the changing seasons remain a predictable occurrence, some things don’t. I remember how in my heart I wanted peace in the worst way, to somehow put aside the pain and disbelief of what had happened and what it would mean for the future. I wanted revenge, there was an anger and nothing I could really do with it, there was a fear and nowhere to hide from it. In the early moments I could say I had courage, but with no enemy to fight and with no real tangible way to help, I could only sit without peace. I recall vividly going to the grocery store in Eden Prairie, MN at about 11pm that night. We lived near Flying Cloud Airport and were pretty close to Minneapolis airport. As I got out of the car, I was amazed at how quiet everything was with all the planes grounded… except one. A loan F16 fighter jet that was flying patrol high over the Twin Cities… could that bring us peace?

When I wrote the song “The Child Remains” I reflected at the idea of change and that no matter how old we get or what happens to us, there is still a child inside each of us that is looking for the peace we felt in the loving arms of a mom and dad, or other loved one. Children were created for that place and you and I will spend a lifetime and millions of dollars to get back there… and we’ll never be able to get what we’re really looking for except when we climb into the arms of Jesus. It was he who told his Disciples, shortly before their own personal 9/11, when he would go to the Cross – “I have told you these things so that in me, you may have peace. In this world, YOU WILL HAVE TROUBLE, but take heart I HAVE OVERCOME the world”. My faith sort of melted in the days after 9/11, but the steady call of God’s word to my heart brought to life the promises of God who reminds us that because of sin, this world will bring trouble. But while we are in it, he promises never to leave or forsake those who, by faith, trust in him. And he promises that our lives are more than living and dieing, that we were in fact, Children made to be held in the arms of a Father who’s love never changes and in whose arms those who know Jesus will spend eternity. I pray we might all find the peace Jesus talked about… the peace that comes when we are “In Him”.

Mike

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What’s in a review?

Posted on August 17, 2011 by admin

Recently I asked a website that caters to Christian musicians to have a listen to the latest CD release to get something of a more official review. It’s always interesting to get the reaction of other people, sometimes you get some criticism that helps take the next step, sometimes you get an encouragement that confirms a thought or a sentiment and other times you get critical comments that aren’t always that helpful. As an indie, we usually have to pay for people to take their time and write something up so I felt comfortable investing in this site, which seems to do quite a bit of music reviewing.

So for those of you who are now curious, I hope you can take some time to check out the review and the interview questions too.

View the Review Here…

Let me know what you guys think. Honestly, I’m not all that surprised. When I was 27, I knew it all too and every one sounded the same, there was nothing original and most of the “original” music, wasn’t very good (I’ve heard my first album and it wasn’t very good ;>)…). A lot of folks have told me not to be bothered by it and I just want to let you know that I’m really not. Some of you may have the same opinion and others may have different thoughts. It’s part of the rollercoaster of being an artist and putting your “art” on display for people to take it in and also to sit in judgment on, after all I do the same thing to other artists as well.

So here’s my question – how do you handle criticism (constructive or other), how would you like to mature in how you handle it?

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Quick thought on “the Journey”

Posted on July 29, 2011 by admin

God’s been speaking to me a lot lately… A LOT and one of the the biggest ideas came while working out the mission statement at the campus ministry that I work with. The idea that Life is a Journey, not a destination, is probably one of the biggest things for me of late. We tend to see life in a series of destinations… Graduate from High School, Go to College, Get a Job, Get Married, Have a family etc… Even in our daily schedules we see these things we HAVE to do and they become destinations and we lose sight of the journey. Well the same thing happens in our walk as a Christian and I feel that even church becomes a destination, all too often something that we go and do for an hour, then move on to the next destination.

But I don’t believe that’s what real life is about, especially a Christian life. At The Point, we’re fond of saying that our desire is to “Love Jesus More” in everything we do and when people ask us how that happens, our line is “In Him, Love Him, For Him”, because that’s what the journey of real life really is. You can translate it this way “In Him – our personal relationship with him – our time in God’s word, our quiet time in prayer, our praise and worship, corporately and privately… Love Him, Jesus said if you love me you’ll obey my commands – summarized nicely into Love God, Love others – so Loving God often has the component of serving people… For Him – For Jesus name, for his glory, not my own, not my church’s, not my ministry – but for the name above all names.

When we wake up to balancing these things – In Him, Love Him, For Him – I believe God has been showing me that THIS is really the JOURNEY of life when we’re in this place on a daily basis. We start to see the world around us differently. Are we spending time with Jesus, really with him? Are we seeing him in the conversations and situations of our day? Are we quiet enough to hear the Holy Spirit recall to us the scriptures bound on our hearts? We start to see life differently… in fact we start to see LIFE the way it was intended. Even Church no longer is a destination, it’s one of the highpoints in the journey of our life that week.

So God has really been showing me the Journey rather than the little destinations that I tend to focus on.  How about you?

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Reflections after a thunderstorm

Posted on August 21, 2010 by admin

One of the biggest thrills as an indie artist is to have a chance to play on “the big stage”.  Really not much changes in reality and it doesn’t really have a huge impact on your following when you play in these really big festivals, but there’s something about being “back stage” at a major festival – behind the biggest platform on the grounds.  Our chance came this year as a finalist in a band contest and our opportunity to play the Main Stage at Lifest was indeed a thrill.  But like life so often does to us, it came with some surprises.  Our opportunity wound up rushed due to thunderstorms in the area and we had to cut our song short, the last of the bands didn’t even get to play before the shelf cloud and 50 mph winds tore through the festival grounds.  Being on the stage was awesome, standing in front of all Skillet’s gear and pyrotechnics, but a quiet, short conversation with another artist waiting out the rain delay is what I may remember most.

Todd Agnew has been a favorite artist of mine, in large part because of his genuine humanness and his humility.  Yes, he’s got that unique voice and his own writing style, but it’s the way he carries himself in his life.  Online, interviews, music, TV etc… he comes across as the kind of guy we should want to be.  N. T. Wright, a bishop in England, wrote that we were made to be human, which was in the likeness of God.  Sin is something that makes us less human, obedience and living in God’s Grace and living out God’s love, makes us more human – and Todd seems to me to be that kind of guy.

I had a chance to thank him for the way he carries himself and for his artist ministry while we were waiting for the stage managers to make decisions on whether the concerts would go on as scheduled or how things would be moved around.  We’re standing on the steps that lead off the main stage at Lifest while we watch stage hands squeegee off the stage and talk amongst themselves.  The backstage area is basically dirt… now mud and puddles at this point and people are gingerly walking about it trying to stick to whatever grass there is to avoid getting too full of mud.  As we’re talking he sort of casually mentions a comment from one of his bandmates about how they are thankful they are a pretty laid back group of guys, because if they weren’t, they’d be pretty upset about getting mud on their nice shoes and clothes (which I could definitely relate to)

That’s the funny thing about Todd, he’s so laid back that if he showed up in his Pajamas to do a concert, nobody would think anything of it, they’d just say “bring it on”.  Before we finished our conversation a stage manager interrupted us and basically had to get Todd moving onto a different stage where they were moving his concert.  As he walked down the stairs, he stopped, turned around and stepped up a few steps to shake my hand and say thank you.  After that he was gone.  A short time later, I saw him and his bandmates walking through the muddy backstage road to get to the new stage their concert was to be relocated to.

That conversation and image is cemented in my mind and every time I reflect on it I have to ask… “would we… would I, be willing to get my nice shoes dirty… and walk through the mud to get to the opportunity that was in front of me?“  I think it’s part of what human beings are meant to do in the worship of their creator.  It’s nice to walk on the sidewalk, but if the opportunities take you off road and into the mud, be sure that God will bless you as you go in his name for his glory.    Be blessed – 1 Peter 4:7-11!

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When There Are Too Many Words…

Posted on January 24, 2010 by admin

Written 1/24/2010

They say (I’m not really sure who “they” are, but I’ve heard “them” say this), that some people talk to think… and some people think to talk. As a story teller type person, I like words… As a type A personality, I tend to like words A LOT… and too many times, there are probably a few too many of my own words. Believe it or not, it’s not because I like to hear myself talk, I do enough of that to myself as it is and even I get tired of my talking, but there are many times when I can’t put into words the depth of what I mean to say, especially when I am writing something out. There are so many dots to connect and I can see them ALL, but it takes a lot of words to put them ALL together in some way that people can READ without falling sleep… HEY – wake up!

So when this happens, it is good to have someone who understands an economy of words and I have a close friend who is excellent with words. Jason Elkins is the editor of an online Christian magazine called “Transparent Christian Magazine” http://www.transparentchristianmagazine.com/ and it was one of these quirky emails that I got from him a few years ago now. “Hey Mike, this is Jason and you’ve been on my mind a lot lately and I was wondering if there was something that I can pray with you about” That is the FIRST time that a Christian has actually done that, I never forgot it. Last year at the CIA Summit, Jason, Belinda Jane and I were out for dinner talking about some experiences and I shared with him the turning point of my ministry.

Jason has taken my story and pared it down into something that says what I wanted to, in about half the words. It’s a story of being broken and healed in the little town of Murphy, NC. For many of you who have thanked me for my ministry, this is the moment that God really got through to me and put HIS ministry in action. Please Read on and then spend some time with the rest of Transparent Christian Magazine. It’s a place to make you think as you experience the stories and life experiences of others willing to be transparent about their lives.

Here’s the article:
http://www.transparentchristianmagazine.com/2010/01/25/1000-miles-for-an-audience-of-seven-spiritual-lessons-from-the-road-mike-westendorf/

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“Undefined”

Posted on October 28, 2009 by admin

Posted 10/28/09

Undefined is one of those funny words to me.  Maybe it’s because I use the “Undo” button in Word/Excel documents a lot and I just like the “Un” part of it.  Several years ago when I left my first weather company I knew that I was being led to do other things, music being a big one.  I had a great time with that company and I am grateful for the opportunities they gave me at Weather Eye.  An opportunity to grow as a leader and as a communicator.  Like any job it wasn’t always easy and there were stresses and strains and long hours like everybody has.  But in that job I was THE weather guy on about 200 radio stations across the country.  People knew who I was and enjoyed the weather forecasts/information that I provided along with some of the silliness of radio.  But like all things, they run their course and I knew it was time to move on.

That’s where it got interesting for me.  While I was at peace about leaving, I was going to a LOT of unknown.  I found myself working at Target and music as we had the time, all while hoping for an unknown, either work at UW-Milwaukee or The Weather Channel… or… Target…

I remember vividly the feeling that much like a river, my life had been defined by the high ground around me.  I was a river running in a well defined bank, flowing toward whatever was ahead.  The problem is that eventually the river eventually meets the sea – what happens to the river???  That’s what I felt like.  So much of what defined who I was, was suddenly gone.  And it left me sort of trying to figure out who I am and what would define my life now?

I wrote the refrain to this song after a songwriting trip to Nashville, TN on the long ride home, struggling to put the verses into words, while I nailed down the refrain.  The second verse came from a crazy series of events that reminded me how loss can leave us feeling numb… undefined, like we’re not sure who we are anymore.  I woke up from a bad dream, losing a part of my family.  I woke up and went into the kitchen, grabbed a pen and whatever I could write on and just started writing everything that came to mind in the vividness of the memory while it lasted.   I went back to bed.

That morning, I witnessed a car accident on block in front of me.  Everyone survived, but the tear streaked face of the little girl and her mother holding her will be engraved in my mind, while the kid who burned the red light was clearly in another world, trying to fully understand what had just happened.  10 minutes later, another near accident happened right in front of me and to top it all off on our way to visit an elderly couple with my kids that night, a dog ran out in front of my van.  Scream, screech, bump.  Thankfully the dog bounced, but I’m thinking to myself “OK… OK, I got it, second verse, I know what it is, let me get home and write it”.

I was left with how quickly life changes and how in those moments who we think we are, becomes nothing like the person we feel we are.  Hard to recognize the person in the mirror because we don’t feel like that person after experiencing the loss of the things that defined us.  A spouse, a job, wealth, health, family… remove any of those key things and it’s hard for us to feel like the same person.

The message of this song is that we are not truly defined by those things, but rather defined by the love of a God who never changes.  Though we age and we lose pieces of our lives, God’s promise, love and hope never change.  When we realize we were made in his image, meant to love him and be loved by him – when we hold onto our birthright as a child of God through Jesus Christ, we will never lose our identity, we will never be “undefined” – because “By Your Love, I am Defined”.

In all times, be defined by the God who knows you, loves you, empowers you.

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“You Are Amazing”

Posted on September 15, 2009 by admin

Posted 9/15/09

Several years ago, I saw something on a devotional that hit me hard the day I read them.  One a comment, the other a short prayer.  The comment was from John Bunyan who made this remark: “If we have not quiet in our minds, outwards comforts will do no more for us than a golden slipper on a gouty foot.”  The prayer for that day was simply “  Thank You, God, for what you have graciously chosen to give to me”.

These two comments have been sitting on my computer desk for the better part of 7 years when a simple refrain jumped into my head that echoed this simple prayer “Oh Lord, thank you, for what you’ve given me”.  From that refrain, I started thinking about the things that I have come to be thankful for… physical traits, the eyes to see, the rising sun, the light of the new day… for the spiritual blessings, the day we were made new in Christ, the time of Grace that we live and the joy of so many simple things…  for eternal significance and the sacrifice of Jesus that gives us a confident life now, here and the promise of a life after our body’s physical death…

Thanks to the support of so many people who have bought CD’s/shirts, the churches and venues that have sponsored this ministry, we were able to take this song to studio musicians in Nashville, TN.  Some of these guys have played on the biggest names around, they are built to do songs in a radio style and that is part of what we paid for… something that had today’s “sound”.  The end result is what you have heard and hopefully will hear more of.

The cool thing about this song is that it has taken life in three different identities.  As an upbeat live/fun concert song – as a praise/worship/radio type song and later on this year, as an acoustic psalm.

After getting the radio version of it back, I couldn’t help but think that this is a fitting song for all of us, no matter where we are in life.  “O give thanks unto the Lord”… for what?  For so many things.  When I close my eyes for the last time, I pray that I will continue to have the mind to look back over my lifetime of blessing in dark moments and in the joy filled moments and say “O Lord, thank you, for what you’ve given me”

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I Can’t “Handle” Any More of This!

Posted on July 2, 2009 by admin

Posted 7/2/2009

I’ll bet you’ve heard the phrase “God will never give you more than you can handle”. You’ve heard that one right? You know, life is going down the drain, you’ve had the worst week of your life, you’re pretty good at finding the silver lining, but you’ve lost track of the clouds and the sun is going down on what was a pretty good life. And in the back of your mind you hear this little voice say – “God won’t give you more than you can handle”. Or another way I’ve heard it said “God won’t ALLOW more than you can handle”.

Did you ever feel like screaming “BUT I CAN’T HANDLE THIS ANYMORE!!!”

And then wind up feeling horrible about it. I don’t know about you, but I have been confused by the feelings of overwhelming pain or frustration only to feel guilty about it. My mind would argue that “well, God wouldn’t give me more than I can handle, so I guess I’d better suck it up”. I felt that somehow I wasn’t living up to my end of the bargain as a Christian and that God was, quite frankly, being pretty unfair OR he had dealt out the extra measure of life on the wrong guy.

If you have ever felt this way, I want to share with you something that I was reminded of recently at a College Campus Rally that I helped out at this year in Eau Claire, WI. This is the passage that we typically turn to with this whole thought:

1 Corinthians 10:13 – No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

Most of the time we leave out the tempted part, but it’s important to note that this has to do with Temptation. He will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear. And he always does give us a way out. In fact Scriptures best advice is to FLEE temptation, most of the time we can’t stand up to it. In our pride when we don’t flee, we usually (or eventually) get nailed. The next passage is tough to read at first, but let it sink in and understand what it means for us.

2 Corinthians 1:8-9 – We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. 9Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

Paul does a lot of “SO THAT” in his writings. This happened SO THAT. God did this SO THAT. This review has been a great comfort to me because you know, there are times when I simply can’t bear it. There are times when I really can’t go on, but somehow I wake up the next day. There are times when I’m so broken that I can’t heal, yet in time I am healed. There are times when I have… when you have – nothing left…

And that’s OK. Because in those moments, we realize that this has happened SO THAT, we might not rely on ourselves, but on God. We are reminded of his promises to never leave us, we are promised life through faith in Christ even though our bodies die, we are promised what we need (even if it’s not always what we want). We are promised comfort, hope and peace, when we look to the Cross and see a Savior who connects us to the God who made us and the God who loves us.

So the next time you hear “God won’t give you more than you can handle”, remember he’s talking about temptation. Difficulties will come that are FAR more than we can handle, but he promises to be with us in those moments and to see us through them – SO THAT…

Paul finished it this way in vs. 10-11 -” He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.”

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Little Big Steps

Posted on April 22, 2009 by admin

Posted 4/22/2009

Have you ever played the game “Captain May I”?  We play it around the house from time to time and of course one of the things the captain will say is “Adam… take 3 Big Steps (captain may I?), yes you may”.  Abby, take 2 little steps (Captain May I?), yes you may…” and so on.  This idea of Big Steps is something that I’ve been thinking a bit about lately so here’s a thought -let me know what you think.

When it comes to matters of life and especially the Christian walk, ideally there are no BIG steps.  If we do it right, there are really only a bunch of little steps.  That “Big Step” becomes simply… the NEXT step.

Think about that for a second.  That choice of a college, a spouse, a house, what church to go to etc… they all tend to be significant choices.  How many times are we in a situation where we just don’t know how to make the decision.  We pray about it and we talk to people about it, but so often it is on this DECISION.  But when we stop to think about it… just HOW do we make those decisions?  Where do we find peace in it?  If you’re like me and it feels like a Big Step, then we probably have a few more little steps to go.

The thought I had was that, when we feel uneasy, apprehensive or anxious over some big decision or step in our lives we need to stop and take our focus from the “big step” to our Savior and ask what little steps need to be taken first.  When we walk down a road that we shouldn’t be walking down, there’s anxiety there.   I don’t know about you, but I have struggled with any number of big decisions, but the BEST decisions (the ones that work out and don’t backfire on us big time) are often ones that we have a lot of confidence in.  Why?  We’ve thought it out, sought counsel, been in prayer and as we take each step to answer the questions, we find the “leap of faith” becomes a simple act of obedience.  If that anxious feeling just won’t go away, we may not have only missed a few steps, we may be walking down the wrong road.

So anytime you’re feeling pressured to take a big step – take a step back and see how well you’ve walked in the little steps.  If you haven’t followed through, haven’t prayed about it, haven’t found advice and help you can trust, then chances are pretty good that you are taking a BIG STEP.  In my experience if when I feel that way, I’m usually in trouble.  If you have approached the step with the wisdom that comes through walking down the right road and taking every step – then it’s not a big step – it’s just simply… the NEXT Step.

Do you have any thoughts or examples on this idea?

Blessings to you as you be the blessing!

Mike

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