Author: Bekah Mason

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A Pastor’s Heart: Guest Post


This is a post from my friend Brian Miller. He and I work together as teachers and he, like myself, is also involved in ministry work outside of our school. Brian has previously served as a Youth Pastor, and he wrote this several weeks ago while thinking about many of his students who, like nearly 90% of students raised in church, fall away from their church community when they reach adulthood. It moved me and reminded me of how we should pray for one another and encourage those who have wandered away.

It also reminded me that we, as a church, should cultivate an environment that is attractive and appealing as a safe place for community so that, when people leave, they miss the Body of Christ and long to return.

Thank you, Brian, for sharing a Pastor’s heart for his sheep.

…in Church this morning I was overcome with such Love…I started thinking about all those Loved Ones that have kinda fallen away from my life…I wrote a poem for you and am praying for you…

…you beg God to make you whole again, but I wonder if you understand? You have always been “right” before Him, but perhaps your choices have taken you out of the Peace you felt in His hand…
…You decided your way was best, God begged you to wait…instead you went ahead…broken hearts you left in your wake…
…Now those who helped you fall have convinced you they’re your friends, they now counsel you 24/7, they say I’m your enemy til the end…
…Now I know in your might you’re trying to seek God’s Will, but sometimes that task is scary cuz you can’t rationalize how you would deal…
…You say you’re getting there, but yet you have no peace…you know that’s not God’s Will…please let Him take the shackles off your feet…
…I think the devil is distraught by the fact that I‘m not mad at God or you and I don’t complain that this isn’t fair…because God is Love, Faithful, and can Win with any card He’s dealt…whether you come back or cast your ambitions into the air…
…As for me I still Love, Pray, Forgive you and pray God’s Love is your Life’s Seal…why do I still care? Because Loving you is God’s Will…

Some try to rationalize their sin by saying it doesn’t involve anyone else and no one else is hurt by their actions. Some say they aren’t missed when they leave a congregation to go to another or when they just leave the church altogether. I tried to justify my sin like that. I pray that this peek into the heart of someone who is called to shepherd the flock of God will remind us all that our struggles and our times of wandering impact not only our personal walk with the Father, but also those with whom we walk this journey of life.

When you miss someone who has gone away, let them know. If you know they’ve wandered because of sin, confront them in love and love them back to the congregation of Christ. But above all, love them. Love them with the Gospel.

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What’s Your Legacy?


This has been an interesting week at work. Senior pranks took place the same day an old friend came to school to share with my students about a recent trip he took to Israel. There has been a lot of reflecting and remembering taking place in my heart and mind.

The end of the school year tends to do that every year. Seniors are reflecting on their four years and feeling regret and handing out words of advice over missed opportunities and wishes to be able to go back and do more with friends and family.

Today in class we were discussing the recent mischief and one student made the comment he had been thinking about a senior prank since his freshman year and that that he wanted to remembered for something good. Another remarked, “It’s high school. What we do now isn’t going to be remembered by anyone anyway, so what does it really matter what we do?”

Teachable moment. Transparent moment. What do you do if you’re Miss Mason? You tell your kids a story of one the apparently unforgettable moments of high school for yourself.

Senior trip. 1998. After a relatively unremarkable 5 years at the school from which I was a mere three months from leaving, myself and two friends who shall remain nameless decided to buy a cheap pack of Swisher Sweets and sit in the resort hot tub and smoke cigars. We were the coolest 18 year olds alive.

Problem was, we’d signed an agreement stating we would not partake of any alcohol, tobacco or drugs while on a school trip. And we got caught. By the Heads of the History and English Departments. And the High School Principal. It was AH-mazing.

Needless to say, phone calls home were made, many apologies were given, several Saturday schools were served, much repentance and remorse was expressed. The event became a running joke for a couple of years and then we all moved on with life.

Fast forward TWELVE years. I’m at the funeral of  the father of a friend with whom I had grown up and who had graduated from the same school. While standing in the cemetery, a woman who had worked at the school while I went there approached my parents and me. After the standard pleasantries, she asked, with a twinkle in her eye, “So, smoked any cigars lately?”

REALLY? Five years at the school. Multi-sport athlete. President of the Forensics Team. Beta Club Member. I was a member of the Character Committee, for goodness’ sake. “Good kid.” Left there. Received two undergraduate degrees and an M.Div. I’m a teacher, speaker, published author, women’s ministry leader. Sister to three increasingly cool younger siblings. Sister-in-law to two amazing women. Aunt to the smartest and cutest kid in the world. But I am, at least in the mind of that lady, the kid who got caught smoking cigars at Disney World.

Granted, there are worse things one could be remembered for. Much worse. But looking back, that is NOT the legacy I desired for myself at that school, or anywhere else for that matter.

What we do makes a mark on those who are watching us, whether we realize it or not. And we have no control over which choices of ours others choose to carry with them in their minds as our legacy.

So when you are making decisions, no matter how big or how small, ask yourself, “Do I want this to be a part of my legacy? If this is the ONE thing someone remembers me for, am I ok with that?” Because once a legacy is established, once a reputation is developed, changing it can be next to impossible.

Whose legacy are you more concerned with? Your own, or the legacy and reputation of Christ in you? Everyone leaves a legacy trail. Where will yours take the people who watch and follow you?

If you have a legacy or reputation that you may not be proud of, it’s ten times harder to erase that bad reputation. But are you willing to do the work needed to change it, or are you content to just let people believe what they will and conform to their opinion of you?

I pray you are strong enough to prove them all wrong. I may be the kid that smoked the Swisher Sweets at Disney World, but I refuse to allow that to be the legacy I leave on this planet. Hopefully the teachable moment of transparency inspired some of my kids to consider their legacies, too.

What’s your legacy? Would you change it if you could? What if I told you that you could? Would you be willing to put in the work needed to do so?

What do you choose to remember about those around you? Do you choose the legacy of others to be their mistakes or their moments of goodness? How do you want those around you to remember you? Remember to give others the grace legacy you wish them to extend to you.

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Equal Standing, Different Roles


Rob Bell’s book Love Wins has begun countless conversations in the last month or so concerning myriad topics of faith: salvation, damnation, God’s love vs. God’s wrath, Christian fellowship, heresy… the list could go on and on.

But this morning I came across a blog discussing a portion of Rob’s theology that has not been nationally dissected: his use of describing God in the feminine form. On the blog for the Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, Diane Montgomery addresses this portion of Rob’s work in a post entitled Our Mother Who Art in Heaven: Examining Rob Bell’s “She”.

The following paragraph is from Montgomery’s post and includes an excellent illustration of not only a classic misinterpretation of Scripture, but also a simple illustration of the biblical principle accurately portrayed in a modern comparison:
Midway through the video, Bell uses the “banner” verse of egalitarians, Gal. 3:28. Paul writes, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” He goes on to explain what he means by saying in 4:1, “What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate.” As believers in Christ we are equal, but that does not mean our roles are the same. In Christ, a CEO of a company is equal to one of his employees in a cubicle. However, they have different roles. The employee would not take charge of the CEO and the CEO would not do errands for the employee. They are equal in Christ, but carry out different tasks.

Scripture is clear that God is not into “Jim Crow” segregation of men and women. There is no “separate but equal” in the Kingdom of God. But at the same time, while there is equal standing and equal rights, there are different roles to be filled, much like the above CEO and “pencil pusher” illustration shows.

Along the same lines, in a recent episode of the television show Undercover Boss, the CEO of a shipping company attempted to go to work on one of his packing and assembly lines to see what really goes on in the warehouses he owns. He was fired from the job. Was he an employee of the company? Yes. Does he receive the same benefits of being an employee of that company? Yes. But was he able to equally perform a role for which he was neither suited nor trained? No.

Same thing in the body of Christ, whether that is the corporate body of the Universal church, the local church body where you attend, or your place within your own home. All believers have equal standing and rights before the Father. But all are equipped, gifted, trained and expected to perform different roles so that the overall work of the Kingdom is fulfilled. Like the CEO trying to pack and load shipments, when we attempt to fill a role which we were not meant to fill, something is left to be desired. There is no harmony and continuity to the overall workplace. When the owner botched his packing and loading job, the whole warehouse was affected. When we attempt to fill roles in the church and in the home that we are not meant to fill, the church and the home are negatively impacted as well.

THAT is the message of complementarianism. NOT that men are somehow better than women, nor that women inherently have less worth than men. The message is that we should find that role for which God created us and thrive in it instead of fighting against our Creator and His good plan.

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Comfort and Affliction


“You have a subtle gift for comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.” Dr. Dan Wilson, speaking to me. 🙂

At first I wasn’t sure how to take that statement, but it’s grown on me in the last year or so. I like it because it means that, hopefully, my ministry more and more consistently reflects the Gospel because that’s exactly what the Gospel does. It comforts and afflicts. It encourages and convicts.

Jesus was the Word personified, and He both comforted and  afflicted. He cleaned out the Temple and confronted the Pharisees, afflicting the religiously comfortable.

But He also gave the Samaritan woman a look at her hopeless life that had been afflicting her and comforted her by offering the Living Water of Himself.

The Gospel still comforts and afflicts us today. Or at least it should. It afflicts the areas of our life in which we fall into comfortable religion, challenging us back to relationship. It comforts us with grace and forgiveness when we fall one more time to our sin that so easily entangles, whatever that sin may be.

Do you allow the Gospel to both comfort and afflict you? Do you allow God to use you as an agent of both comfort and affliction in the lives of those around you?

When we speak and live the Gospel consistently, we can’t help but do both, because the Gospel made Flesh did both. As believers, Little Christs literally, we should both afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.

Just make sure you allow the Word to do the same to you first. Acting in the flesh gets it backwards every time and we end up comforting the comfortable and further afflicting the afflicted. Just ask Jesus- He was the afflicted that was afflicted by the comfortable.

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Jesus and Suicide


5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'” 7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Matthew 4

One of the greatest blessings of teaching at a Christian school is that once a week, we worship together in a chapel service. The worship through singing is led by our students, and then we usually have a guest speaker share a message with us. It is a midweek refuge, a time set aside to stop the rush of classes and homework and grading and teaching and discipline and meetings to just gather together around the Throne of Grace and remember that before we are teachers, students, and administrators, we are brothers and sisters in Christ. It’s a time I treasure each week.

This week in chapel, a minister named Walt from The Hopeline came to chapel and shared with our students about their ministry. Through his message he gave them a wide open opportunity to begin some real heart conversations about real issues they face everyday: abuse, bullying, cutting, pornography, sex, drug use, and suicide. By just speaking the words with love and compassion, in a church sanctuary, with no judgment, no horror, no hatred of the thought of those struggles, he gave our kids permission to speak safely about the deepest struggles of their lives, and I love him and his ministry for that.

In the course of his talk, he made one comment that has stuck with me. He was talking about suicide and he mentioned in passing that Satan tempted Jesus to “just jump”. He was referring to the three temptations Satan presented to Jesus after His 40 days of fasting in the wilderness.

When considering that passage in Matthew, I have thought of Satan tempting Jesus with His trust of God the Father and His Word. He tempted Jesus to jump based on Psalm 91:11-12 in which the psalmist wrote: “11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. 12 On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.” Satan was essentially saying to Jesus, “Jump. See if your Father really meant what He said in that Psalm.”

I wonder if Satan wasn’t also tempting Jesus to take control of His own life.
Jesus had just spent 40 days in the desert preparing for his time of ministry. I don’t know what the Father revealed to Him during that time. But I have no doubt that, at that moment on the Temple, Jesus understood fully His purpose for being on the planet; to teach, to heal, to save, to confront, to love, to be betrayed, to suffer, and to die. I can imagine that, standing on that highest pinnacle of the Temple, thinking through all He knew he was about to face, this thought could have crossed His mind: “He’s right. Just jump. Why go through all of that if I don’t have to? The Father may want me to sacrifice myself, but it is my life to put down and take back up (John 10:17-18). I can put it down now and avoid all of the pain and suffering I am about to endure.”

Jesus was tempted with suicide. He was tempted to just jump. To take the easy way out. To avoid the betrayal, mocking, fatigue, pain, suffering of life on this planet and return to heaven where He was worshiped and adored.

But He didn’t. He put Himself aside, emptied Himself, denied Himself, and “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). He was tempted in the now and said no because He knew there was a greater weight of glory to receive in eternity through the suffering (2 Corinthians 4:17).

So what do you do when the overwhelming “NOW” tempts you to “just jump”?

  • Remember that we have a High Priest who has been tempted in every way, yet without sin.
  • Be like Jesus; quote Truth, take the thought captive.
  • Take the moment to stop the spiral into now and bring yourself back to an eternal perspective. “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).
  • And tell someone. Expose that temptation to the Light. Call a trusted friend.
  • Call the Hopeline at 1-800-394-4673.
  • Go to their website, www.thehopeline.com, and chat with someone.
  • Text DMHopeline to 63389 and just reach out to someone.

But more than anything, remember that Jesus knows the thoughts you’re thinking; he may very well have been tempted with those thoughts Himself. He understands the feeling of exhaustion and despair and wanting it all to just end. But through His endurance, He provided for us an eternal way out of the pain and misery of being separated from the One True Healer. He gives you the way out of it. He suffered and showed us how to suffer for the glory of God, with a perspective on eternal glory and not temporary suffering.

Do you deal with thoughts of suicide? Do you know someone who does? How could this thought of a Savior who has fought and overcome the same temptation bring comfort and encouragement to a life full of pain and heartache? How does Christ’s victory over death heal our broken hearts?

I will leave you with this comforting and hope-filled passage:

14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4

Do you need mercy and grace to endure in your time of need? Draw near to Him. He knows you pain and suffering, intimately and personally, and knows how to overcome it.