Will Vaus

Erik Weihenmayer is blind, yet on May 25, 2001, he reached the peak of Mt. Everest. Suffering from a degenerative eye disease, he lost his sight when he was 13, but that didn’t stop him. On a mountain where 90 percent of climbers never make it to the top—and over 290 have died trying—Erik succeeded. Erik succeeded, in large measure, because he listened well. Erik listened to the little bell tied to the back of the climber in front of him, so he would know what direction to go. He listened to the voice of teammates who would shout back to him, “Death fall two feet to your right!” so he would know what direction not to go. He listened to the sound of his pick jabbing the ice, so he would know whether the ice was safe to cross. When we take a perilous journey, listening well can make all the difference.   Life itself can be a perilous journey. Therefore, it can be most helpful to listen carefully to someone who has navigated that journey successfully before us. Personally, I know of n...

Listen for God’s word to you from Mark 3:20-35… Then he [Jesus] went home; and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.” And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.” And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered. “Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit c...

A church board was interviewing a young man for the position of pastor. One old hard-working Irishman, who was on the board, looked at the young man sternly and asked, “Young man, is God calling you here? The young minister replied, “Well, I don’t know if God is calling me here. I am here trying to find the will of God and find out if you would like me for your next pastor.” The board member replied, “Young man, is God calling you here?” The young minister was somewhat at a loss for words and said again, “Well, I just stopped by to talk with the board and…” The board member interrupted again and said, “Young man, is God calling you here?” Finally, the young man screwed up enough courage to say, “Well, I guess God isn’t calling me here. I just stopped by to see whether we could get together.” The old board member leaned back in his seat and said, “That’s good. The last four ministers we had said that God had called them here, and we had nothing but trouble with all four of them!” That s...

  As you probably know, Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. The album appeared first in 1970, followed by a live musical performed on Broadway in 1971, and a film version in 1973. It was very much a work of the times, building off the enthusiasm of the hippie and Jesus movements. I can remember my brother playing the album in his room; the catchy tunes and lyrics were hard to resist. In the title song, Judas sings: Every time I look at you I don’t understand Why you let the things you did get so out of hand You’d have managed better if you’d had it planned Why’d you choose such a backward time and such a strange land? If you’d come today you would have reached a whole nation Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication Don’t you get me wrong - I only wanna know Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ Who are you? What have you sacrificed? Jesus Christ Superstar Do you think you’re what they say you are? The song has some great questions. ...

  John Ortberg tells the story of Tattoo the basset hound…. Tattoo didn’t intend to go for an evening run, but when his owner shut his leash in the car door and took off with Tattoo still outside the vehicle, he had no choice. A motorcycle officer named Terry Filbert noticed a passing vehicle with something that appeared to be dragging behind it. As he passed the vehicle, he saw the object was a basset hound on a leash. “He was picking them up and putting them down as fast as he could,” said Filbert. He chased the car to a stop, and Tattoo was rescued, but not before the dog reached a speed of twenty to twenty-five miles per hour and rolled over several times. The dog was fine but asked not to go out for an evening walk for a long time. There are too many of us whose days are marked by “picking them up and putting them down as fast as we can.” Into such a world of busyness, Jesus comes to offer radical rest. This rest takes at least three different forms that we can see in our pass...