I-N-G-S is for
      It's Not Grace only for Sundays

Before my family moved from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, we lived on Merritt Avenue. A well-indoctrinated parishioner once remarked, "Mighty odd for a Lutheran to live on 'Merritt.'" What would he say now that, because of our move to a street in Appleton, Wisconsin, we live on Lawe! At least my call is to a Lutheran Church named Grace.

I make a point of this, dear Reader, so that you will not panic when I say that this issue of Crossings will give the last word to Law. For "Law" in this case is Tom Law, who has been a practitioner of Crossings for a decade. Law himself will tell you how the Law can be helpful, for instance in making his workplace function. But Law will also tell how the Law does not help Christians to be Christians in that workplace. He was glad to learn that believers can carry their faith to work, even in ways that bear visible witness, such as by showing kindness to co-workers or having peace in trying times. But the Law cannot help them do that. In fact, in order for Christians to believe and live out their dear privilege--that workplace successes and failures are important but not finally important--the Law must be demoted and the supervisory role taken over by Another with a very different management plan.

Another important bit of evidence that Tom works for that revolutionary new Manager is Tom's all but voluntary work for Crossings. He is a great contributor, offering his professional computer skills to the constant, on-going work of maintaining the Crossings website and ListServe, both essential to this ministry we thank God for.

I am happy to introduce Tom's story of how Crossings helped him take his faith to work.

tbcm

Our Adult Education committee thought it was a good idea as well, so we called up Crossings and set a date for a Crossings weekend retreat. Ed Schroeder came and did our retreat at Faith Lutheran Church in Marion, Iowa in February of 1989. He taught us how to cross our faith with our work-worlds. It was very interesting to learn that even in the small things we are showing Christ to the people around us. When we hear and learn of Christ's love for us in the lessons or the sermon, we can pass that on through a smile, kind word, and most importantly how we live our lives. Our co-workers watch us and what we say and what we do every day, not to find fault with us but wondering how it is that we get through the tough times and still manage a smile, when they do not.

a gracious Law

The real meat of the Crossings workshop was the "six step" plan. This helped me get past my stuck point. This got at "the heart of the matter." The Crossings way of "stepping" into the problem was a revelation to me, since most of us only look at the visible problem, try to diagnose it and quit there. The Crossings way is next to step inside people to see the inner problem. Then step to the core to see the deepest problem, our problem with God. In step number four Crossings looks at God's own solution for the core problem, then at His solution of the inner problem and finally at His solution to the outer problem. This finally put everything in perspective for me. This made all the stars line up in the sky. For instance, I had a recent performance review at work. My manager thought that I was doing great work and was a team player. He liked that I had good communications skills and was confident with my abilities. But he felt that I was too slow and needed to speed up, be more efficient. He outlined some ways that I could be more efficient. He had a plan of attack to make me better. He was pleased with himself that he was helping to make a good employee great.

I was not so sure of his plan of attack. I went to the Crossings plan and figured out that I was being asked to step up another rung on the ladder although I was happy on the rung I was on. I then stepped back (inner) and looked at my ladder and realized that this was an unending climb, that I was never going to be good enough and that there would always be something else to fix. Then I knew (root) that God's solution, suffering-death-resurrection, was my only real solution.

So I gave a try to being more efficient, but I knew in my heart that God loved me as I was and if I was more efficient or not He did not care!

You see, for me, Sunday morning was about grace and forgiveness. Monday morning was about climbing the ladder and doing the right thing. The only way to get anywhere was to climb the ladder, to get better, faster, more efficient to get more money to buy more stuff and continue that cycle till it drove me crazy or I died. If I made a mistake along the climb, I was knocked down a few rungs. This climbing the ladder is the Law under which we live. Now, do not get me wrong: for our society even to function we need the Law. But most of us take the ladder with us into church on Sunday mornings. We take it with us right up to the Lord's Supper and most of the time we forget to leave it there. We hear the grace and forgiveness also in the sermon, but turn it into how we can climb our ladder better, faster or more efficiently. We forget that Jesus died and rose again for us to throw our ladders away! Because if we think we still need our ladders, then we do not need Jesus. We can do it ourselves. We only need a coach. Jesus came and died and rose again to impress on us that through him is the only way, and our ladders lead us nowhere.

In my computer software profession, it is very hard to throw the ladder away. We are constantly making the software faster, better, and more efficient. This is all in the name of satisfying the customer to get us more money, so we can get better raises, so we can buy more stuff and think we are happy. I use the Crossings method constantly to remind myself to throw my ladder away and thank God that Jesus did what he did. The Crossings six steps remind me where the Law takes me--nowhere. And then it allows me to see where Jesus' grace takes me-- home. I think Luther said the freedom that Christ gives is not the freedom to be a self-made god, but the freedom to be the creature I was created to be without worrying about all the God stuff. He would take care of that. We are to take care of the creation.

For me, when I am on the ladder I am constantly worried. How am I doing, can I be better? Is the Boss upset with my performance? Will I get a good raise so I can pay for my daughter's braces, and my son's college? I am also scared of heights! But, when I take these worries through the six steps, I see that I am greatly worried over nothing. The final goal has been won. I have already won the race. I have already written some great software. It was all done by Jesus. Do not get me wrong, I still worry about paying for college, but it is not as dreadful as if I only had the ladder to climb to solve it. He sent his Spirit to help me.

This Crossings method was the only thing that brought Sunday morning into the rest of the week for me. It was a tool for me to evaluate any situation I might be in, and see a way out. Some days are pretty hard, but I have a way to make it through them that actually gives me comfort.

Since that first retreat, I have been getting the newsletters and keeping up on what has been going on. Then in 1996 one of the newsletters asked for anyone who had Internet experience, because Crossings was thinking about moving its message to the Internet. This was a natural fit for me. My experience was writing software to work with the Internet. I was also wondering if I should be doing more ministry-related work, maybe even quit work and go into the ministry. So, I called Ed Schroeder and we talked about it. We started sending e-mail back and forth and I set up a test web page on my personal site on the Internet and we got started. Since then we have moved the Crossings web site to more stable ground and have tried to put up weekly information as well as thought-provoking commentaries. This has been very rewarding strictly from the standpoint of helping to get the message out to the world: there is a way to get there from here other than climbing the ladder. If the Crossings method helped me, maybe it can help others.

tom law