On My Worst Day

by John Lynch

  But God has formed today’s scene, from long before oceans and sand existed.

  We start out so slowly. I am predicting my shuffle will be stopped by muscle tightness and shooting pain, as it usually does. But something about this setting, out on firm sand, with an ocean to my right and my daughter on my left, is different than usual.

  … There is no pain. There is no limp. With each step, there is less caution.

  I gradually pick up the pace. Amy and I are now breathing in unison, striding down the shore. I take off my shirt. I feel almost thirty-three again!

  I am becoming quickly aware this is no longer a run. It is the revealing of God’s vindicating and redemptive love and eternal intention.

  I continue to stride out, faster and faster. “Faster” might be a nine-minute pace. But I have not felt this familiar feeling of well-earned exertion in so long! It would normally be very painful. Except I’ve missed it so much, I’m gulping it all in, with every breath.

  Nearly two miles into the run, Amy looks over at me. She stares a long time. I can feel her gaze. I look back over at her. We are both beaming at each other, now nearly galloping.

  I turn back, straight ahead, pushing forward even faster. She calls out, above the sound of the waves, this one word:

  “Impressive.”

  We are locked into a moment of God’s finest quality of appreciation. I am lost in the eternal, lost in how absolutely great he is.

  I am lost in my love for my daughter, lost in my respect, admiration, and endless pride of who she is—maturing into a far more beautiful woman than the one I knew before the darkness. She is healing, coming full alive, fully herself, deeply in love with God.

  She is opening again to me. It feels like that day when I opened her car door to discover all those note cards taped to her dash. Later this evening, she and I will opt out of the family trip into town. We will dress up and go on a date, strolling around this resort. We will continue to allow each other back into the deep places of trust and love.

  I mouth this word back to her, with insufficient breath to make it audible: “Impressive.”

  I am lost in shattered gratitude.

  As my body begins to seize up into near crisis, I am unwilling to allow this moment to end. God is revealing himself again, in such intensity, I momentarily wonder if I will suddenly have a heart attack and come home. He has been more to me than I ever imagined I had capacity to experience. I am ready. I push harder, happily forcing the issue for God.

  And I say this word to him inside my head, breathing now in short gasps:

  “Impressive.”

  Afterword

  From Bill Thrall and Bruce McNicol

  Congratulations on finishing an exhilarating adventure into the life of our esteemed friend and co-author buddy, John Lynch. Can you imagine working with this guy? Whoa. Piece of work. For us, it’s part Melodrama, part Saturday Night at the Improv, and part stunning joy of Narnia. One day, we’ll tell you the “rest of the story.”

  But, now, we are interested in your story. If you’re like us, you long for your story to be true and to matter. Reading Worst Day probably only increased your longing for the freedom of a trusted and authentic community, where your story could be heard and could flourish. A place, which nurtures your healing, maturing, and best contributions in this life. We want you to experience such a life!

  The three of us, along with our wives, our families, and our friends are part of a larger community anchored in committed relationships of trust. This community is far more important than any bestselling books we have authored, and exceedingly more significant than our greatest strategic plans. It is from this imperfect, yet authentic environment that we write. Experiencing the power of such community for decades now, inspires our relentless vision to see hundreds of thousands of similar high-trust, communities of grace multiplied around the world. That’s the real mission of these books, to give you the hope of a life that for too long, and for too many, has seemed beyond reach.

  So, if Worst Day captured your imagination for this way of life, we invite you to read or listen to another book, called The Cure. In The Cure, we take you on a journey down a road less traveled, leading to the fountainhead of these powerful communities, the God-principles. Think of it as The Cure… for your worst day.

  To your story, by God’s grace!

  Bill Thrall & Bruce McNicol

  Co-authors, with John Lynch, The Cure, Bo’s Café, Behind The Mask,

  Also, The Ascent of a Leader, Beyond Your Best, High-Trust Cultures

  To access these resources, and for our Trust One Center online campus, please reach us at www.truefaced.com

  Acknowledgments

  For years I wanted to write a book on grace and the voice of God from a personal perspective. I imagined that it might help change the culture. When it came time to write it I couldn’t easily change our trashcan liner.

  But Bill Thrall and Bruce McNicol wouldn’t let me believe my lies. Whatever I know about loving protection, much of it has come from these two men. Bruce had the courage to tell me my first effort was disproportionally dark, inaccurate and meandering. He kindly compelled me to write the truth of what God had done in me on my worst day. Bill, who rarely has any artistic insight, was forced to give me this book’s creative layout. These two are much of the reason why this book exists and why I haven’t run off with the circus and forfeited the influence of my life.

  When I began the project, I knew the person I wanted to hear most from was my friend and immensely talented writer Bob Ryan. His first words were, “The only thing I know for sure is that the title of the book will be On My Worst Day.” Thank you for your honesty and belief in me.

  To Stacey. She believes in me so much…and could care less if I ever wrote a pamphlet. Somewhere in this process she allowed me to start reading snippets to her. At one point she said, “Hey wait, I like these! I would read these in a book. You should keep going…Read me another one.” Oh, how I adore Stacey Marie.

  My relationship with Crosssection has not been that of an author-publisher, but rather gifted publishing friends who are driven to reshape culture. Doug Martinez and Jason Pearson demand this message of the Original Good News be told as revolution. Doug’s care for me and honesty forced him to call me one evening to tell me that the book cover I had chosen was fine but would miss a chance at revolution. Jason is a freak of nature. Much of his own artwork is astounding and shockingly controversial. But he has worked way beyond expectation to create the media exactly needed for this subtly subversive message. Kris Hull did much the same.

  Every writer should have Jordan Green as their developmental editor. He mocks my writing and insults me at every turn. Then, in the next breath, he will tell me how he cried through the next piece. Linda Harris was my text editor. If there is any hint of the English language being honored in this book it is largely from her resplendent skills. John Pearson spends most of his time changing the world on boards, organizations and consultancy. Until we write a book. Then he humbly protects us in the last hour, catching typos and errors which would make us look like we wrote the manuscript buzzed on floor polish. He is one of the most vital friends of this message.

  And to my village…

  To Open Door. There has not been one moment in forty years where this ragtag, family of absurdly failed and wonderfully vulnerable lovers has not dared to risk this word “grace.” It is still magically felt by everyone who walks in your doors. You changed and continue to change the way I hear the voice of Jesus. Where would I be without this community?

  To the board of Truefaced, our amazing staff and our Advisory Council. Your refusal to let this message fail has made you our heroes. You bring your capacities and sacrifice for free and make us feel like you’re stealing to get to do it.

  To my children: Caleb, Amy and Carly. You did not have a say in being brought into this grand experiment. You have never been pastor’s kids. You have instead risked the very same truths your mo
m and dad did. You wanted this to be real as much as we have. And your lives prove its truth as they shine so brightly. I could not be more proud of each of you.

  And to every friend I have all over this world, met and unmet, who have championed to risk goodness when everything around you looks chaotic. You have trusted the Original Good News on your worst day. And now we have found each other…and are discovering we were separated at birth.

  It’s almost like there’s a God or something.

  Rock on.

  John Lynch

  The Cure

  What if God isn’t who you think He is and neither are you?

  The Cure gives the diagnosis of this century’s religious obsession with sin-management. It has poisoned the Church, obscuring the Original Good News and sending millions away—wounded, angry and cynical, from nearly any organized expression of faith. The Cure offers an authentic experience in Christ that frees some from a self-rewarded righteousness, and others from a beaten down striving for a righteousness they can never seem to attain. The Cure infuses a relational theology of grace and identity, which alone can heal, free and create sustainable, genuine, loving, life-giving communities.

  Bo’S Cafe : A Novel

  High-powered executive Steven Kerner is living the dream in southern California. But when his bottled pain ignites in anger one night, his wife kicks him out. Then an eccentric mystery man named Andy Monroe befriends Steven and begins unravelling his tightly wound world. Andy leads Steven through a series of frustrating and revealing encounters to repair his life through genuine friendship and the grace and love of a God who has been waiting for him to accept it. A story to challenge and encourage, Bo’S Café is a model for all who struggle with unresolved problems and a performance-based life. Those who desire a fuller, more authentic way of living will find this journey of healing a restorative exploration of God’s unbridled grace.

  Behind The Mask

  Reversing the Process of Unresolved Life Issues

  The act of sin—ours or someone else’s—creates within us an involuntary response of either guilt or hurt, which leads to the inevitable effects of pain, turmoil, and mask wearing. Understanding how to reverse the process of unresolved life issues is what Behind the Mask is all about.

  For more information on the Trust One Center online campus, please see www.truefaced.com

  About the Author

  As a great communicator and writer, John Lynch is a vital staff member of the Truefaced team and co-writer of bestsellers Bo’s Cafe and The Cure.

  Since 1997, John has been speaking nationally with the Truefaced team, often acting out the popular Two Roads message and delivering compelling talks of living out of new identity. He is currently also a co-designer and a primary faculty member in Truefaced’s newly developed Trust One Center online campus and their Life Application Courses.

  John served for twenty-seven years as teaching pastor at Open Door Fellowship in Phoenix, Arizona. The authenticity, longevity, and playfulness of these two flawed communities, Open Door and Truefaced, brings real-world validity and wide reaching application to this message of the Original Good News.

  For fifteen years John co-founded and helped write, direct and act in Sharkey Productions, a Gospel-anchored theater group, eventually performing in the prestigious Herberger Theater.

  It is nearly documented that few can eat food as fast, or hold their breath under water as long as John.

  John and Stacey are enjoying their marriage more wonderfully than at any time of the last thirty years.

  Their youngest, Carly, is the family’s resident theologian, studying for her Masters of Divinity at Azusa Pacific University. Amy is the family kin-keeper and a dental hygienist, living in Phoenix. Caleb is a children’s sports director, as well as a cross country and track coach at Arizona Christian University. He and his wife Kali have brought Maci and Payton into this unrehearsed and deeply loving family.