November 2011

Spiritual Crabology

Overcoming, Relationships /

“Be devoted to one another in brotherly love . . . Rejoice with those who rejoice.” Romans 12:10 & 15 (NIV)

I was introduced to this concept years ago by a Mississippi pastor. Being familiar with the fishing industry in the Gulf he described how those catching crabs did not need to put a lid on the container in which the crabs were kept. Naturally one would think that any crab that wanted to, could simply crawl up over the edge and escape. But the curious nature of the crab is that instinctively those in the group reach up and pull down the ones climbing out, back into the bucket. They will not allow one another to break free which sadly seals their collective fate. He referred to that mentality as crabology.

Crabology of course extends to human behavior. It says in effect that “if I can’t be free, neither can you.” It is the tendency to want to downplay, discourage and even disallow someone else from a breakthrough or succeeding at something that we have not experienced. It may be motivated by envy or jealousy, a competitive attitude or simply ignorance as to what is really happening.

Needless to say crabology also has spiritual applications and implications. Paul the apostle addresses this very thing in his letter to the Romans when he said “rejoice with those who rejoice.” This injunction is set in the context of seven verses in which Paul is giving specific instructions to Christian believers as to how to get along with one another. (Romans 12:9-16) All of it is great advice and very much needed, as evidenced by how frequently it has not been heeded.

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The priority of spiritual habits

Growth & Development, Prayer, Relationship with God /

“And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as was His custom, He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and He stood up to read.” Luke 4:16 (ESV)

“As was His custom” – four simple words that communicate volumes. What does that phrase, applied to your life tell everyone about you?

In many ways our customs define us because they tell us what things we have decided to give priority to in our lives. The ideal is to establish regular practices and habits that impart energy, provide stability and/or add meaning to life. When we think about daily routine – our dietary habits, ways in which we keep informed and engage with media and our exercise routines or the lack thereof all come to mind. But the most important customs to establish in life are the spiritual ones.

Jesus was a creature of habit when it came to His spiritual life. He made a commitment to habitual daily, weekly and even annual practices that nourished His personal relationship with His Heavenly Father. These practices also became the platform from which He launched a good portion of His ministry. Daily prayer, early in the morning or late at night (Mark 1:35 & 6:46), weekly engagement in worship and the Scriptures each Sabbath at the synagogue and regular attendance at the annual feasts in Jerusalem were the benchmarks of His spiritual life.

If Jesus, fully God, yet fully man, made daily communion with God and weekly engagement in worship the priority in His life, how much more should we? Paul, following in Jesus’ footsteps, began each week in the synagogue as well. “As was Paul’s custom, he went to the synagogue service, and for three Sabbaths in a row he used the Scriptures to reason with the people,” (Acts 17:2 NLT)

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Reflections on our Cabo Mission Outreach

News & Reflections /

Last week I was in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico on a mission outreach with eleven other people from our church. As with most mission trips the schedule was very demanding to maximize our time and ministry effectiveness so I had no time to write a blog.

Our mission was threefold. We were there to put on a men’s conference, help two churches with construction projects and meet with local church leaders to gain their input for our future involvement there.

The shear logistics of such an ambitious undertaking with just one vehicle stretched all of our sensibilities. The ninth beatitude, “Blessed are the flexible for they shall not get bent out of shape” became our maxim.

We hit the ground running the day of arrival by kicking off the men’s conference with a Saturday evening meeting hosted at the Alpha Y Omega church. We followed that up with three more meetings Sunday morning, afternoon and evening. We concluded the conference on Wednesday night. The main theme was the fatherhood of God and our purpose was to help men address and resolve past issues with their earthly fathers (and mothers) so that they could become rightly related to their heavenly Father.

From the very outset we sensed a powerful presence of the Lord and were awed by the way in which God had drawn a good contingent of men from several area churches accompanied by their pastors. It was unifying to see our worship team of four guys interchange songs with the Alpha worship team.

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