Ten Second Sermons: Exploring Faith with Haiku

By Mark Lidtke

Ten Second Sermons uses a faith-based haiku format to encourage and challenge both individual readers and the church as a whole.

Mark Lidtke, a devoted Christian who served as a public middle school teacher for three decades, shares how the Lord has guided him even when he struggled with his faith.

As he approached retirement, he found himself in a time of reflection, and he prayed. God was quick to answer, and his faith was ignited as he wrote haikus – something he often used to promote learning as a teacher.

In this book exploding with powerful verses, he tackles a number of topics, such as love, empathy, revelation, and how Christians can live for Jesus.

The haikus can be used for daily inspiration or as building blocks that will help you celebrate a deepening relationship with Christ.

Whether you’re struggling with your faith or want to cultivate a connection with God for the first time, this book will inspire you to live your best life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Feb 15, 2024
• ISBN: 9798385016297

Mark Lidtke

Mark Lidtke was born in Oregon, which led to a love of the outdoors, especially camping. A public middle school teacher for three decades, he was a team leader, talented and gifted coordinator, ran a volunteer service project, and served on numerous committees. He also mentored at-risk students, coached sports, and served as a student teacher mentor for Western Oregon University, Willamette University, and Corban University.

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Copyright © 2024 Mark Lidtke.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

WestBow Press

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 979-8-3850-1628-0 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-3850-1627-3 (hc)

ISBN: 979-8-3850-1629-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2024901170

WestBow Press rev. date: 02/13/2024

CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1 It’s Time to Get Mad

Chapter 2 Turn Up the Volume

Chapter 3 Real Church

Chapter 4 Know and Grow

Chapter 5 Love, Love, and More Love

Chapter 6 Woe to the Christian

Chapter 7 We Stumble and Trip

Chapter 8 Eradicate Hate

Chapter 9 We Would Be Robots

Chapter 10 Sin Is So Sticky

Chapter 11 Those Cold-Blooded Emotions

Chapter 12 God Lets Life Happen

Chapter 13 God’s Power and Presence

Chapter 14 When Faith Faces Finances

Chapter 15 Just Jesus

To Melody:

Wo ai ni

PREFACE

I was a bored Christian. Church had become stagnant, and the Christianity that I felt was getting stale. Too many times, I sat through hours and hours of sermons only to exit with nothing to show for it: nothing that changed, challenged, inspired, or improved me. I read the Bible regularly. I prayed daily. I was in growth groups as a member and leader. From a distance I might have looked like a role-model Christian. But I wasn’t.

I had been a no-doubt-about-it Christian for decades, dating back to when I was in first grade in Coquille, Oregon. Yet I felt disconnected from God. God wasn’t to blame. I was. I knew that Christians needed to continually grow, and that’s what I wanted. That’s what I needed.

My life was in transition. I was nearing the end of a thirty-year career as a public middle school teacher and looking forward to retirement. It was a time of reflection—reflecting on myself, on God, and on life. So I prayed to God, and he was quick to answer.

I wasn’t on a mountaintop, speaking to a burning bush, but I felt God leading me to use the haiku form to summarize, organize, reflect, and explore. Christianity is fundamentally simple, but people, especially Christians, tend to complicate it and make it confusing. I guess we want to show God how smart we are or show others that we’re extra religious. That can create a gap between Christians and God as well as creating a barrier between us and the world that we need to reach. That’s where haiku comes in.

During my three decades as a teacher, I had admired haiku. Yes, it traditionally has a nature theme, but my students also used it in social studies to write about historical events and people, often with amazing results. I knew that haiku is flexible and impactful. It’s so precise, concise, efficient, and deep for having only three lines and seventeen syllables. It is an ideal fit for what I wanted to do: write to-the-point messages that share a Christian moral or lesson.

So I