Loud

I'm really bad at doing this blogg thing consistently. I feel like I need an accountability partner or something. I recently heard Tony Campollo quote Abby...or something like that...Hoffman, and it has changed my life. When he was brought in after the Chicago riots the judge asked him, "So, what happens to all the innocent bystanders because of this revolution you're trying to start in America." Hoffman replied, "In a revolution...the bystanders are never innocent." Wow. God has really been challenging me to not just be someone with ideas, but someone with passion. I want what I believe to be understood by how I live. The word is bleeding so bad in so many places and I sometimes find myself watching...feeling bad, yes. Caring, yes, but too lazy to do anything about it. I'm often able to squirm and eventually convince myself that I do enough. I hide behind what I'm already doing in order to ignore what I should be doing. We are called to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves, to be a voice for the voiceless. In the words of Adrian Despres, "God give me the compassion of Jesus when He wept over Jerusalem, but also give me the passion of Jesus when He turned over the money tables in the temple." There are plenty of things that aren't right with the world and if I sit back and do nothing the blood is on my hands. The church cannot not be an innocent bystander, not when God has called us to be the salt and light of the world.

I Dare...

I know that I don't have the right to ask in light of the fact that I've been given much, everything in fact, but I stand here boldly and I do...dare to ask.
I ask that I may be this man that You hold out before me. That this is the last time I trade in Your forever for my right now. I want to be used by You to do the impossible. I want to toss mountains in the sea and usher in the very Kingdom of Heaven. I want to shake the dead of this generation awake from their sleep, give life to these concrete statues who have somehow tricked themselves into thinking that this is as good as it gets. I want my life to speak louder and more often than my words. I want to live and I want things to change because of it. Most importantly, I want my motive, my inspiration, my purpose to be You. An encounter with me would be devestatingly You. That I would be a foggy memory, a "scratch your head moment", but that You would be painfully real. That my life would scream You and hush me. I'm far to small to live a life for, but You...You are everything. I'm tired of copping out, giving in, and falling short. I need You, I want You. In then end I stand here before my God, asking. I do not ask because I deserve. Honestly, I can only stand here because of what You have done for me, but...I do dare, I dare to ask, ask to be what You have been forever asking me to be. I dare to dream, dream what You have been forever dreaming of me. I dare to live how You have been forever daring me to live.

Lean Wit It

Alright, so the title is lame, but it might make sense in a few minutes. I have some confessing to do. I wore Hammer pants. It's true. I also had "race tracks" shaved into the side of my head while sporting the infamous rat tail. I donned the slap bracelet, rocked the pumps, and there was even a time when you could find a Don Corlione (how do you spell that?) resting on my head. I guess I'm what you might call a poser. I have a tendency to get caught up in the latest fad. In fact I just ordered this sweet hat from Urban Outfitters...no joke. I find it funny how we can convince ourselves that what we're into will always be "cool." This is what I have to do to stay up with the times, and then a little time passes and we're hiding pictures, giving away clothes, and practically laughing at ourselves on "I Love the 80's."
I guess this post is inspired by people who look at Christianity as nothing more than a fad, or my favorite...a crutch. A few thoughts... I guess first of all, fads are temporary, they fade away, become dusty memories. The world is still living in the aftermath of Acts chapter 2. What twelve men did 2,000 years ago is the complete opposite of a distant memory, it is the present reality. In two thousand years nothing has stopped the church, not even itself. Yes, we've made mistakes, lots of them, horrible ones, but the church never fades. Jesus told Peter that He was going to build His church on Him...ouch...and not even the gates of hell would be able to stand against it. Jesus' words stand tall. Not Nero, not the entire Roman Empire, not fallen Christian leaders, not John Lennon, not Nieche, not Hitler...NOTHING has or will stop the church. It's far from a fad...it will always be here.
Some people think that God is just the product of the human imagination, we need to understand things and so we make up this idea of God to explain what we can't. A crutch if you will. I don't quite see how the human need for the concept of God disproves His existence. Think about it, you can find this need in ever culture, at any time, and in any place, did they all get together and decide that God was the correct answer to thier questions? I think not. They fact that people have a need for a God doesn't disprove Him. Its like a tree's need for sunlight. It will twist and bend itself, grow in quite peculiar directions so that it can compete with the other plant life around it for sunlight. Now if a tree were to ignore this need for sunlight the chances of it surviving are not good.
Crutch...I understand what you're trying to say, but you need something bigger, a crutch falls awfully short. Jesus offers us much more than a crutch, an aid...He offers us... everything. He is how things are. I have to admit, its cute...crutch, but you have no idea. He doesn't just offer a clever way of thinking or solutions to the worlds problems. In the words of Rob Bell, Jesus shows us reality at it most raw. It's how things are supposed to be. A crutch? Tiny Tim could manage to get around without one, he could crawl if necessary. Breathing would be impossible without Jesus "holding all things together" (Colossians 1) I'm ok with that, I'm ok with needing Jesus, in fact I desperately need Jesus.

Then...and...Now

So this weekend I get to home. It's been a long time, I was 22 for most of my last visit, translated that means that I haven't been home since June. I'm looking forward to it, but something struck me the other day while I was driving. I don't know if its the wanna-be preacher in me that is constantly looking for an illustration or what but you shouldn't be surprised to hear me say this again.
What struck me as odd was that suddenly all at once I noticed how "built up" Lexington has become. I've been down here for almost four years now and the place has exploded. What I find odd though is how it snuck up on me. For instance the other day I was driving my normal drive home from work and I noticed this huge steel frame building being constructed. This frame didn't just suddenly appear out of nowhere, no it has been assembled for months.
Here's the kicker. Whenever I go home after being away for a while I am flambasted by how developed Lafayette has become. Lafayette is my hometown and is quite rural, but never the less, its exploding. Now the growth is really not all that different between the two towns, they are relatively the same size, but I don't see the constant every day growth of Lafayette. When I go home I just see the product of a month's or even a year's worth of work. I don't necessarily see drastic change taking place in Lexington because of the slow and steady work that I live around every day.
All of you clever people out there are like, "Oooo I know where he's going", and that's fine, I'm really not all that clever, but I think that often there are times in my life where I don't feel like I'm growing, I feel stagnant, but that's because I'm comparing today to yesterday. Chances are there hasn't been a lot of change. Maybe we should start looking back to where we haven't been for a while. Where was I last year at this time? Something I learned while in college is that God grows things. He really is in no hurry. I think we need to take a look at back THEN before we can appreciate right NOW.

Ladies and Gentlemen...

Here's the thing. Girls...I know guys can be frustrating, but the thing you have to understand is that we are honestly clueless when it comes to your ways and for the most part we don't even know it. I have learned a few things in the past year or two that I can classify as tendencies, differences in the sexes if you will. Allow me to share...

1. Ladies...you have a tendency to read into things way too much, while us fellas tend to not read into them at all. Now yes, there are some guys, myself included, who do always suspect there to be more to the situation than there actually is, but hear me out. If a girl asks a guy a simple yes or no question and he responds with either one, a girl quickly begins asking herself, "what does that mean? why did he say that? did he really mean this? or did he really mean that?" When a girl answers a simple yes or no question she rarely means just yes or no, and guys rarely suspects the hidden deapth of information hidden below the surface answer. But, here's an example of how this principle looks besides the answering of questions. Just the other day some of my small group guys decided it would be funny to put a protien bar, still in its wrapper, on a young ladies car. I have no idea why we would find this funny, but we did. After discovering the protien bar on her car, the young lady stormed into the youth room rather ticked off, and seemingly a little hurt. She asked the young man, who happened to be a relative of hers, why he would do something so mean. He defended himself by pointing out that the protien bar was still in its wrapper. It was quickly noted by another individual that this was no ordinary protien bar, but it was in fact a South Beach Diet bar. GASP! The young lady thought her weight was being insulted when in fact she is the walking definition of everything that is not fat. As you can imagine the young man was clueless of his actions and quickly apologized.

2. The second trend I have noticed in my 23 years has to deal with problem solving. I have learned that just because a woman shares her problems with you doesn't mean she is looking for your advice. Ladies, let me inform you of how the male mind works in this situation. As men, we don't like to necessarily discuss our junk, problems, etc., until we are ready for advice. We tend to wrestle with it in our minds, this is probably why we do not like to ask for directions, until we realize we are unable to fix it. We then will confide in someone for advice. So, when a girl is talking to us about her problems we have a tendency to think that she is looking for advice and step in to help.

Well, in 23 years I have accumulated two tendencies in the female sex. I hope and pray that there will be more insights to offer in the future. Peace!

Whisper

Call me cheesy, cliche, corny...kinda strange all of these words begin with "c"..., but my amazing girlfriend (Amanda Lane) and I drove to the mountains this past Saturday to watch the sunset. Our destination was a spot known as "Pretty Place", no seriously. The place was definitely pretty, and came complete with a cross and plaques offering insightful poetry. Amanda and I noticed that for some reason it felt necessary to whisper. We weren't the only ones, but as we sat there looking at the breath-taking view, everyone was whispering. It was almost as if anything more than a whisper would cause the beauty to vanish. When I think back I see a trend, perhaps an unspoken rule that when ever I am before beauty, greatness I must whisper. Why is that? Perhaps it is from recognizing my place. That there are things out there bigger, greater than me. Maybe its because too many words can ruin the experience. Or maybe its because silence is our way of paying tribute to that which is greater than us.
Regardless of why, it just feels right. So God, I offer you not only words of praise, but also the beauty of silence for You...are...great.

Fiction

I don't where my obsession with the imagination comes from, but as far back as I can remember a good portion of my life has been spent lost in an imaginary world where I more often than not vanquish an evil villain and save the day. If I'm honest I'll admit to you that I played with GI Joes until...well lets just say I was old enough to legally be one before I retired them in the shoe box underneath my bed. I just love the ability to create whatever I want, be whatever I want, and do whatever I want. I determine what is real, I choose how things are.
I have nothing but respect for people who have mastered their own imagination. People like C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Tolkien has actually created an entire world out of his mind. This world is complete with history and language, its almost too much for me to handle. The imagination is the escape for the human heart, in fact its where our dreams are able to stretch their legs and walk around for a bit.
I guess I say all of this because when I'm confronted with the products of God's imagination I am floored. Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created..." The Creation that we live in is nothing less than the product of God's imagination, and what really baffles me is that God had nothing to work with. Even the greatest artists, authors, musicians have things to work with. An artist usually paints people, or maybe landscapes. An author, even one who writes fiction, is inspired by actual events, or other stories. Musicians listen to the music of others. But you see God is before anything was. God not only painted the picture, but He crafted the paint, the canvas, the brush...and even art itself. He decided what a tree should look like before there was a tree. It was His idea to put into creation secrets, tendencies, patterns that science now is able to unlock.
Our God is a dreamer, an artist, and we are His masterpiece. In Ephesians chapter two Paul says that as believers we are God's "workmanship." Another definition of this word is "fiction." We are straight out of the imagination of God. When the Almighty decided to make something in His image, something to that would reveal His glory, and be in a relationship with Him, He created man, and woman. He wasn't forced to work with unwanted stuff. He's God. With His limitless resources and infinite power God and His IMAGination created us..in...His...IMAGE. You are no mistake. You are the walking, talking, breathing, singing, dancing, laughing, crying dream come true of our awesome God.

Something like a beginning.

I guess a few things before I "write my first blog." 1. I'm a horrible speller (yeah for spell check) 2. I have a tendency to go overboard with the commas. 3. I've never finished a journal in my life so there's a good chance that I won't be a consistent "blogger." 4. I probably will lean towards the intense concerning my blog topics. With all that said, I guess I'll just write about what's been on my mind. That's how it works right?

The word of the week has been "incentive." I feel as though God has been asking me what my incentive for...everything is. Not in order to find out something He doesn't know, because well He's God, but more so to get me to examine what drives me to live. God has been asking me to look at what inspires me to worship Him, serve Him, love others, like I said...my incentive for everything.
What's funny is I thought I had a good answer, but I should have known because it was a quick answer and not exactly the correct one . God has to see this coming (again because He's God), I picture Him asking me questions like this with a smile on His face...Can God be sneaky? Well anyway, my quick answer was...Because when I do these things I feel that I'm living "life to the fullest/life abundantly." It's what makes me feel alive, satisfied...fill in the blank. It was everything you'd think God would want to hear, but the thing is the question seemed...unanswered. Not in like "a buzzz, wrong answer!" sort of way, but more like a "think about the question again" sort of way.
I can't remember how the answer managed to find its way into my head, but gently, as if it had been there all along, it cleared its throat and called my attention to itself. God's glory. That's the incentive. That's as simple as it gets. I feel that at the center of theology rest these two words. The totality of scripture...God's glory. The meaning of our existence...God's glory. The motivation and accomplishment of Jesus Christ...God's glory.
Why does this matter? I guess I'm just a little tired of seeing Jesus turned into this angelic Dr. Phil. We tell broken people living in a broken world that Jesus will fix all of your problems..."fill the God shaped hole in your heart" sort of thing. If I'm honest, my life since I've been a Christian has been far from perfect, in fact some of the lowest times have been since I've accepted Him as Savior, but here's the thing I've come to understand. The buddy Jesus can only last for so long, like a Band Aide it eventually falls off. Living in a world where horrible things happen to good people eventually proves that Jesus isn't necessarily out to make us "happy", He's after more. There has to be more of a reason for Jesus to die than my problems, my heart aches, and my tears, there has to be a bigger reason for Jesus to die...than me, and there is. Jesus is after more than happiness for the human race, He's after restoration. To return us to our purpose, why we were created in the first place. To be in a relationship with God, to bring Him glory.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think God's unconcerned with our problems, with our heartaches...He is the Father of all compassion, God is...Love. God does love us, and because He loves us He wants us to glorify Him. It's what He designed us for, its where we are most satisfied. Incentive, why I do...what I...do. God's glory.
This was definitely intense, way to long, and I'm not entirely sure it makes sense, but wow...this felt good.