Ouch

This might sound ridiculous, but I think I would rather break a bone or have a large wound rather than a hangnail or a paper cut.  Those little nagging injuries are so annoying, and I feel like a complete wuss if I complain about my throbbing hangnail as opposed to oh, you know, my arm falling off. 

I’ve heard it said that the number one reason why people don’t believe in God is the problem of pain and suffering.  I wonder if there is like a top ten list out there or something.  But, the question goes like this, “If God is so good and all powerful, then why do bad things happen?  Why do people suffer?”  I think this is a fair question.  The typical response that they get is something like, “Well pain is God’s way of making us stronger.”  Someone told me one time that pain is God’s way of putting His finger on something that needs to change in our lives.

I don’t for one second doubt this to be true.  I mean you read things like Romans 5:3-5 that tells us that persevering through suffering produces hope, and in James 1 that perseverance in the face of pain brings about maturity.  Not only have I read these passages but I’ve discovered them to be true in my own life.  So, I don’t doubt this truth, but I have been asked a very difficult question concerning this truth though.  Why?

After explaining how this whole thing works to someone who has asked the pain and suffering question, I was once asked, “Well, why did God make it that way?”  It is a really good question and I really didn’t know what to say.  If God is God, and can do whatever He wants, and if He supposedly loves us, then why do we have to go through pain in order to grow?  Why couldn’t growth happen through something else, like every time I ate chocolate or something? 

Now, I’m sure a lot of you out there could easily answer this question and it’s probably something that you’ve known for a long time, but I couldn’t.  I couldn’t answer this question without feeling like I was just swallowing something that somebody told me to believe.  Until the other day. 

Here’s what I’ve come to realize.  God didn’t make it this way.  Not at all.  God didn’t make a world with pain and suffering.  Pain is here because of humanity’s rebellion and disobedience.  I think pain came into the picture in Genesis chapter 3, when man betrayed God.  I happen to believe that how heaven is described is how things weren’t meant to be from the beginning.  Revelation 21:4 says, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”  That’s how I think things were meant to be.

What I do know about God is that He is a redeemer.  He takes things that are ugly, broken, and awful and He makes them beautiful. Whether it is our past, our shameful mistakes, or horrible things that have been done to us, God takes these things and he uses them to offer hope.  Look at the cross.  It was once the most shameful and disgusting symbol.  I’ve heard that the word for the cross (crux) was considered a swear word, but now it is the most powerful symbol of forgiveness and love.  That’s what God does.  He knows that a human being will not go through their life, probably not even a single day, without experiencing pain, and instead of suffering just being mindless pain; it is now a vessel for change.  As a follower of Jesus I can look at pain and see it redeemed, I can see it as a way to experience hope, and it is a reminder of how good God is and of how much He loves me.  

Her...

I don’t normally like the idea of Internet PDA, but I feel that now that I’m engaged I have a bit of a right to express some.  As of 10/17/08, Lindsey Grayce Jefferies has decided that the idea of spending the rest of her life with me is somewhat of an ok thing.  The proposal went flawlessly!  Thanks to everyone who helped make it happen. 

 In the words of Lou Gehrig, I consider myself the luckiest man alive.  I wanted to take some time and tell you about her…

 She is the walking, talking proof of God’s love and grace in my life.  I, in no way, shape, or form have done anything in my life that is deserving of her.  I hope and pray that I will never think that I do deserve her.

 I’m pretty sure the word beautiful feels like it’s being used in its truest sense when it is being attributed to her.  (If you don’t like mushy stuff, don’t read anymore)  She is the kind of person you scratch your head at and you can’t help but wonder if she is real.  “Can it be possible for someone to be that…good?”  

 Her love for God isn’t just a topic for conversation that she pulls out when it’s convenient.  She doesn’t offer him, “props”, but she has given him her life.  She spends time with him every morning and it seems that her and her mother both have the sort of close relationship with him that is enjoyed over a cozy breakfast.  She loves God, and He knows her. 

 

Making her laugh is my favorite thing to do.

She makes the best cinnamon roles in the entire universe.

She can do pull-ups and dips.

Only because of her do I like turtlenecks and high heels.

Her skills at the “air drums” are unmatched.

Playing with my hair makes her and I both sleepy.

Green eyes; curly hair.

She is really good at whispering…too good in fact.

Coffee tastes infinitely times better when she is around.

 I used to not believe in the whole, “You just know” business.  It seemed all too convenient for already married people to say that they just knew each other where the one.  I do believe in it now.  If you asked me how I know I would tell you this.  It is the most incredible feeling to know that for some crazy reason I am the only one on this earth who is capable of making her as happy as I do.  To be that person is the greatest privilege I have ever received.  There is nothing better than to know that there is no one who she would rather be with and that there is no one who I would rather make happy. 

In my life there is proof of God’s existence, there is proof of God’s grace, there is proof of God’s great love; it is her.

Round On the Sides, High In the Middle

I thought I would send out an update for all of my adoring fans. (Please understand the sarcasm!) This is my first official blog from the state of Ohio where I am currently watching snow fall outside of my window. 

For those of you who haven’t heard, I accepted the position of High School Director for Ginghamsburg Church just outside of Dayton, Ohio. It is historically a Methodist Church, but it honestly doesn’t look much like any Methodist Church I have ever seen. It does, however, carry the same passion as John Wesley to see the world changed by the Gospel, and for that I am honored to be a part of this church.

So far things are great! I am really excited to see what God is going to do here and I am learning a lot. For one, most of my life I’ve been a bit of a dreamer…yeah, shocking I know, but I am now in a place where I can see vision become reality. After all, potential will always stay potential unless something is done with it.

I am currently looking back over the most dynamic year of my life. Trying to describe with words the distance covered and the change that has taken place is somewhat of an overwhelming task. If you don’t keep a journal I highly recommend that you do. It’s a great thing to have written proof of God’s work in your life. I am not the person that I was a year ago and I am incredibly grateful for it. 

If I had to use one word to offer a taste of the movement I’ve seen, it would probably be contentment. This is an awfully tough lesson to learn and it’s one that I don’t think is ever finally reached, but is instead daily decided upon. I don’t think of it in a sense that I am satisfied with what I have done or that I have no desire to see things change, but it’s more of being ok with who I am and where I am at and hopeful that God will do what He wants. 

All of my friends in South Carolina…I miss you terribly. South Carolina definitely got a hold of my heart and all of you Southerners are right when you say that there really is no place like the South. Thank you so much for your support and friendship and I can’t wait to see you again! 

I Do

    For the record, I am not an expert on marriage.  Clearly.  I’m not married.  So please don’t for a second think that I consider myself to know more than you, especially if you’re married.  I do however read the Bible on a regular basis and I’ve seen what it has to say about the subject and I just wanted share some of my thoughts.

I’ve recently discovered a huge frustration in my life.  I mean this one is big.  It’s when married men talk about their wives as if they are “just” their wives.  There’s nothing special about it, it’s more work than anything, and the marriage relationship is presented as a hassle that they are forced to put up with.  Us single guys who are still excited about the idea of getting married are strongly encouraged to wait because we don’t know what we are getting ourselves into.  We hear things like, “The first two years are great, and then it’s all down hill from there.”

Do me a favor; don’t paint yourself as a victim.  This seems strange to me.  It’s like we’re supposed to feel sorry for them or something because their relationship isn’t what it used to be.  Now, I understand that not all relationships are the same and that marriage does require a lot of work, but if your relationship to your wife isn’t what it used to be then I can probably guess that you have something to do with it. 

Here’s why I get really frustrated though.  The Bible uses the relationship of a husband and wife as a powerful illustration to describe the relationship between God and his people.  That means that as followers of Christ one of the most powerful examples we have to show people what it’s like to know God and be in a relationship with Him is the marriage relationship; how husbands love their wives and vise versa.

Your marriage isn’t jut about you.  We live in a broken world that lacks true examples of love.  Nothing is as good as it seems and nothing seems to last.  I refuse to believe that is true.  A marriage relationship where two people love each other in a sacrificial way; where a spouse’s fulfillment, satisfaction, and happiness comes from serving the other, offers hope.  It proves to people that you can love and be loved in the way you’ve always dreamed of. 

Here's an idea.  The next time you hear a spouse talking about the other in a positive way, one that reveals passion, love, and commitment, say thank you.  It is such a nice thing to hear.   

Cutting Loose

Fall is coming.  I love the fall more than any other season.  I think that is the only thing I miss about about the state of Indiana, geographically speaking.  It is by far the best time of year.  Chapped lips, runny noses, the smell of burning leaves, jackets, and watching football Thursday through Monday.

I love oatmeal.  I really do.  But you have to be careful when cooking it because it swells up to nearly three times its original size and can make quite a mess in the microwave. 

I once saw someone put gunpowder wrapped in aluminum foil in the microwave.  Wasn't as impressive as you might think.

If it you knew it was the last time you were going to hug someone, do you think the hug would feel differently?

There's nothing better than discovering a new favorite song.  Sometimes I get sad thinking about all the favorite songs that I haven't found yet, and maybe I never will, but then I just listen to some of my old favorite songs and I forget about all of that.

I think you should go have some fun today.  

Me Being Me (pt. 3)

Maybe you should read this slowly or something because you might get a little dizzy.            

So back to this idea of righteousness.  I decided to look up the word in the Greek and it told me that the word meant…drum roll…righteousness.  Awesome.  Then I decided to look up righteousness in my Webster’s dictionary.  Now I don’t know if it is because my Webster’s is really old or just lame, but the word righteousness could not be found in my dictionary, buuuut it did include, “right.”  The word right is defined as, “Proper and fitting, properly adjusted, disposed, or placed; orderly; sound in body or mind.”  This started to make sense. 

See in Romans chapter 6 Paul says, “When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.  What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of?”  Things that I am ashamed of.  These tend to be things that I wish I would never have done.  Things that seem to be out of character.  These are things that I do and then find myself saying, “You shouldn’t have done that, that’s not like you.” 

Then in chapter 7 Paul goes on this somewhat confusing rant about the things he does and things he wishes he would do instead.  It’s almost like we’ve walked in on this conversation he is having with himself.  After it’s all over though Paul says something really interesting.  In verse 22 of chapter 7 Paul says, “For in my inner being I delight in God’s law.”  This is interesting to me because there is this well-known Psalm, Psalm 139, and in verse 13 David says, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”  It’s this intimate picture of God creating someone before they were born, knitting together the deepest parts of what it means to be a human being.

So maybe righteousness has something to with all of this.  Maybe following Jesus, becoming a slave to righteousness, is reconnecting with something that was created even before I was born.  Maybe it’s being the kind of person that God has always intended me to be.  I wonder if it’s not necessarily about following some list of rules, but instead what if righteousness, what if putting my faith in Jesus is me being…me for the first time?

To be continued...    

?

I really don’t like to admit that there are times that I struggle with doubt.  But I do.  I don’t so much doubt the existence of God or whether or not Jesus is God; I really do believe that, but I sometimes find myself questing whether or not He cares about me.  It’s usually when I’m not enjoying my circumstances; when things aren’t the way I want them to be that the pity party starts. 

There is a really interesting account in Mark 9.  This father whose son has been possessed by a demon since he was young approaches Jesus.  The father says that the disciples tried to cast out the demon, but they couldn’t.  He says to Jesus, “If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”  Jesus replies, “If you can?  Everything is possible for him who believes.”  Then the father responds in a way that I automatically relate to, but then ask, “Well, what does that mean?”  He says, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief.”

How can you believe something and not believe something at the same time?  I mean either you do believe or you don’t…right?  I think perhaps if we put ourselves in the father’s shoes we might be able to understand where he’s coming from.  The Bible says that the boy has been possessed since he was a small boy and that often the demon tried to kill the boy by throwing him into the water or into fire.  Imagine that.  Imagine being a father and watching your child go through that…over and over again.  And then here come some men supposedly sent by God who can’t do anything about it.  I have to wonder if the unbelief that the man is speaking of isn’t directed toward the existence of God, but whether or not He cares about what is going on.   Have you ever been there?  I know I have.  Now compared to the situation in this story my circumstances can seem somewhat trivial, but I can relate. 

I can assure you that God is here, and God does care.  One of the names for Jesus is “Emanuel.”  It means, “God with us.”  Not only is God real, but He is with us, and He genuinely cares.  So much that he often puts us in situations that only He can handle so that we will begin to only have faith in Him.   See the man saw that it was Jesus who drove out the demon.  I’m sure that man went home believing that Jesus was God and that He did care about him.  The most loving thing God can do is put us in situations where we have no other choice but to trust.  These situations produce faith. Faith that Jesus is who He says He is and that He can do what He says He can do because it is only by faith that anything and everything is possible.    

Me Being Me (pt. 2)

Here’s what I’ve come to learn about Scripture; it reveals to us what is true about life, reality, and the world we live in.  The words don’t make things true, they tell us what is already true.  For example, the Bible says things like, “God is love.” God existed a long time before these words were ever written.  God didn’t just become love after John wrote his first letter to the church, but the Bible reveals to us what is already true; that God is the essence, the originator of love.  Why is this important?  Because we aren’t supposed to just read scripture, we’re supposed to discover the truth of it outside of the pages; we’re supposed to actually live it out.  So when I read things like Romans chapter 5 when it says, “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character hope”, I can believe it because I haven’t just read the words on the page, but I’ve discovered the truth that they reveal in my life and the world around me.       

I’ve come across a word that has grabbed a hold of my attention and won’t seem to let go.  Righteousness.  It jumped out at me while I was reading Romans chapter 6, which makes sense because I think that righteousness is just about every other word in that chapter.  As I read this word over and over again I couldn’t help but ask the question, “What is righteousness?”  I’ve heard this word so many times and it seemed that I could tell you what it meant, but when I tried to explain it to myself, I did a horrible job.  Kind of like someone who pretends to know about something just so he can be part of a conversation.  The way I seemed to understand it was that it was synonymous with obedience.  Someone who was righteous was someone who followed the rules; who didn’t break the law, but as I read through the chapter I began to think that I had fallen incredibly short in terms of understanding the depth of righteousness.  See I don’t think Jesus came to make us into rule followers, but I think he came to do so much more.  He wasn’t about behavior modification; he came to make us into new creations. 

How do you understand the idea of righteousness?

To be continued...

Me Being Me (pt. 1)

So, I've been hearing a lot about how long my bloggs are.  I am truly sorry, right from the bottom of my heart.  I've decided to break them up for those of you who can't stand to read more than a paragraph at a time :).  Here's the first of a series of something I've been thinking a lot about.  Hope it gets you thinking!

I’m really not a big fan Scrabble or crossword puzzles, but I love words.  I can remember a time when I would actually read through the dictionary for fun.  I don’t say this to present myself as smarter than you because most of the time I was looking up words that cause the male mind to snicker.  Come on, who hasn’t looked up flatulent in the dictionary?  If you haven’t, you most definitely should. 

But I really do love words.  They are incredibly powerful.  They can inspire and move us.  They can’t paint pictures and tell stories.  They can build people up and they can tear people down.  Words separate themselves from noise and raw sound in that they communicate meaning and truth.   Well, at least they should.  

There are certain words that seem to become less understood the more you hear them.  There are probably a lot of these words floating around for those of us who have been immersed in the Christian subculture for a descent amount of time.  These are the words that we glance over as we read the Bible, words that we throw around during theological debates, or have screen-printed on our t-shirts.  The sad, and very dangerous thing about this is that these words become just words.   It’s like they become so familiar to us that they lose their power and fall like dead leaves back to their one dimensional prisons. 

To be continued... 

Who vs. What

There is this conversation that I seem to continually have with God.  It honestly should have only happened once, but we have it on a regular basis.  I like to ask God what He wants me to do.  You know, “What great task do you have for me God?”  He reminds me that I am getting ahead of myself and He is more interested in who I am.

            I’ve heard that restlessness is something that plagues a man throughout his entire life.  I think I believe that.  It’s like when things start to lose their shine, when I feel like I’ve been standing still I get figity.  I begin to pelt Him with questions about the role I’m supposed to play and the things He wants me to do.  When I do this I have a tendency to take my focus off of the kind of person I should be.  But you see I think that God is more concerned about who we are because God can use someone who loves Him to do, well, anything. 

            It makes since because Jesus does say, “Seek first the kingdom of God and it’s righteousness and all these things will be given to you.”  Oswald Chambers points out that Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.”  Mr. Chambers then goes on to say that purity affects vision. 

            So I guess that when I get a bit frustrated with where I am in life, with what I’m “doing”, I should focus my attention to loving God, being the right kind of person

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

   What is it about a cold that turns men into sissies?  I played almost an entire year of football on a fractured foot, I can handle pain, but the minute I get a cold I want someone to make me some food and rub my back.  I seem to get them whenever the weather changes, and you would think that after recovering from so many of them I would realize that I’m not going to die from a sinus infection; in fact, I’ll be just fine.

            There is this “common cold” that seems to infect most people who claim Jesus as Lord.  We call it apathy.  It’s when we get bored, we feel dry, and we say things like, “God feels so distant.”  I can almost picture myself plucking the pedals off a flower in a grassy meadow comforting myself with a game of “He loves me; me loves me not.”  Maybe it’s just me.

            But I came across some scripture in Romans chapter 5 that comforts me during these spiritual sinus infections (sorry, I had to say it).  Paul tells us of two different ways that God shares His love with us.  The first one is found in verse 5, “…because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit…”.  These are the times when the air is thick with God’s presence, you know that He’s there and you know that He loves you because you can feel it.  The second way is in verse 8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  He doesn’t just tell us, He shows us.  No matter how apathetic I feel I have a day, an actual real historical point in time that I can look at and know that God loves me.  How do I know?  He died for me, even when I wasn’t who I should be. 

            It reminds me of a marriage.  From what I hear a married couple doesn’t always feel the same way about their spouse as they did on their wedding day.  Rumor has it they get frustrated and tired of each other.  Good thing love isn’t a feeling, but a truth.  Feelings are fleeting and people are finicky.  It takes me a week to decide how I feel about a hair cut. The love that exists between a husband and wife isn’t validated solely by how they feel about one another, but also by an actual day, a point in time when they stood before God and man and made an oath to love the other regardless.

            I guess this means I can put the flower down.  I really didn’t like the meadow anyway.     

Thoughts on Leadership

            For the record, I do not consider myself to be a great leader, but I do hope to be one some day.  I am not an expert in leadership, I’ve never been to a leadership conference, but I do feel like God has been teaching me a lot about the subject.  The following are just some of my thoughts about leadership. 

 

-One of my professors this past semester said one of the most powerful things I have ever heard about leadership.  He said that we love to use the term “servant leadership” when we talk about Jesus, but the thing is Jesus never used the term leadership, He just said serve.  Sometimes it sounds like we promote service as a means to get people to follow us.  Jesus says in Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  So what if leaders served not for the sake of getting people to follow them, but just for the sake of serving?

 

-I’m going to be honest, I don’t like to read a lot of books on the idea of leadership because a lot of the time I feel like I’m reading a book about how to sell a good product, like I’m signing up for Amway or something.  But I did read one this past semester that presented a really intriguing concept.  It’s called reverse learning.  It’s when a leader/mentor actually seeks to learn from who he/she is leading/mentoring.  I think this is a great idea.  Why do leaders always think that every moment or encounter you have with them is their opportunity to teach you something?  I find this frustrating, especially when I do it other people. 

 

I think this would do a lot to help produce more influential leaders.  It seems that if there is a common struggle for almost all leaders it is that they aren’t very teachable.  Who hasn’t said that before?  But, I have found it to be true, and the thing is that if as a leader you aren’t teachable than you are going to produce other leaders who aren’t teachable.  Perhaps the greatest thing a leader can do for someone under them is show them how to be teachable. 

 

I think the idea of reverse learning is a difficult concept for most people in leadership because they think they have a monopoly on wisdom.  Leaders seem to think that because they have more experience and the simple fact that they are older than they have more wisdom than those who are under them.  Let us not forget that wisdom comes from God.  Job 32: 8-9 says, “It is the spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding.  It is not only the old who are wise, not only the aged who understand what is right.”  It seems that we all have something to learn from each other regardless of age or experience.

 

-David offers us some really beautiful words about leadership, and I consider him to be a great leader so I will offer them to you.

“The God of Israel spoke, the Rock of Israel said to me:  ‘When one rules in the fear of God, he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings the grass from the earth.’”  2 Samuel 23:3-4

 

 

 

The God Who is Here (Pt. 2)

I love my people.  I love my church.  It's so great to be a part of something I believe in.  You guys are great!  Thank you.  

If we do serve a God who is here, a God who is now, a God who wants to know me; then why can I count on one hand the number of times I have had a genuine intimate encounter with Him?  “Well, I know I encountered God on this mission trip, and I know I felt God during this time of worship, and that one time when I prayed that I would find my car keyes and I did.”  It seems like an intimate God who is as big as we say He is should be a bit more involved with our lives than the few camio appearance we can remember.  Oh, but He is.

Here’s where I think the problem lies.  We seem to think that the only way we can encounter God is through what I like to call, “extra-terrestrial life encounters.”  These are the moments in our lives that seem so far removed from the everyday; kind of like when God speaks to Moses out of a burning bush.  It’s like the only way we expect to experience God is through some type of event that is so far removed from the world we live in, something that has little to do with the life I live from a day-to-day basis because God can’t be that interested in my life anyway can He?  I think that He is.  In Deuteronomy it says that Lord is our life.

There’s this guy Elijah who has a really interesting encounter with God.  You can read about it in 1 Kings 19.  Elijah is on the run from king Ahab and his wife Jezebel because they had killed all of his friends.  The Lord sends His word to Elijah and tells him to go stand on the mountain and that He will meet with him there.  Elijah goes to the mountain and something really peculiar happens.  The Bible says that there was a great and powerful wind that tore the mountains apart, but…the Lord wasn’t in the wind.  Then there was an earthquake, but…the Lord wasn’t in the earthquake.  Finally there was a fire; certainly God was in the fire.  Nope.   The Lord wasn’t in the fire.  The Bible than says that after the fire came a gentle whisper.  When Elijah heard it he went out and met with God.

Sometimes, probably most of the time, God speaks to us in whispers.  This isn’t a voice that stops us in our tracks or a voice that we can’t help but hear; this is a voice that we have to listen for.  Maybe it is a voice that is speaking all the time.  Maybe encountering God isn’t about waiting for Him to show up in some “extra-terrestrial life encounter”, but instead about discovering how eternity is right under our noses all the time.

God isn’t far removed from our lives, in fact, He is our life.  I think we need to ask more “why questions.”  Things like, “Why do I long to love and to be loved?  Why do I hate when my favorite movie is over?  Why does it bother me so much that people suffer who didn’t do anything to deserve it?  Why does music move me the way it does?  Why do I get so upset at bad drivers?”  If we ask more of these, “why questions” I think we will discover that God has a lot to do with what it means to be a human being and that He is very involved in our lives.  God is here, God is now, and He is our life.    

The God Who is Here (Pt. 1)

I'm back.  Sorry for the absence.  I have some excuses, but none of them are good enough to mention.  Let's just say that I was giving those of you who complain about how long my posts are time to catch up.  Just joshin.  Any way, I'm back and here's what's been on my mind.  

I’ve been thinking lately about traffic lights.  Normally the only time I think about traffic lights is when I’m stuck at one because for some reason people like to wait until they are ready before they drive their automobile through a green light.  I’ve been thinking of them in terms of what they do in the middle of the night.  Their twilight operations; what they do when all of the traffic is parked; the time of night when some traffic lights have given up changing colors and have decided to just flash yellow or red.  This is the time of the night that makes you feel like you’re breaking the rules, like you’re some sort of rebel for being out this late.  Not all traffic lights have decided to give up their color changing ways; many of them are still there varying their colors, determining the flow of traffic.  As we sleep theses guardians of the intersection stand at their posts alternating their moods from green, to yellow, to red, reflecting on traffic that has already gone by. 

            There are a couple of chapters in the book of Job where God is revealing to Job how intimate and how involved He is with His creation.  He asks Job things like, “Do you know when the mountain goat gives birth?  Do you watch when the doe bears her fawn?  Do you count the months till they bear?  Do you know the time they give birth?”  This is a picture of a God who is very much interested in what is going on in the world He created, this is a picture of a God who is very much here.  I’m sitting here right now and I’m overwhelmed by the fact that God knows what the temperature is in my room, how the carpet feels on my feet, and how my fingers feel as they fall asleep from the lack of blood flow as I type out these thoughts.  All the while He is aware of what is happening with you and everyone else at this very moment as well as holding the entire universe together. 

            My favorite part of Job though is a question God asks in verses 25-27 of chapter 38.  God asks, “Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm, to water a land where no man lives, a desert with no one in it, to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass?”  See, God is so “here” that He is even where we are not.  Not only is God where I am, but also He is also where I’m not.  In the places that I neglect, the places I don’t think about, the places I am unaware of; there God is.  The funny thing about all of this is that I’m not usually aware of the places that I am in.  I don’t pay much attention to where I am right now, I’m usually thinking about where I need to go or wondering about where I once was. 

            Here’s the thing.  If God is there, “in a desert where no man lives”, where I’m not, then something tells me that He is here with me…now.  It isn’t a matter of Him showing up, it’s a matter of me meeting Him here in this place, where He already is.  Paul says it best when he says, “He is not far from each of us.  For in Him we live and move and have our being.”  Jesus is called, “Emanuel”, which means “God with us.”  We serve a God who is here.  A God who is all around you.  A God who is incredibly intimate with His creation.  A God who wants you to know Him.     

I Heard That

It’s really hard to have a favorite band isn’t it? When someone asks me that question my brain locks up and it’s almost impossible for me to pick one. I find it pretty common to be able to name your top 5 favorite bands, but rarely can someone come up with their consensus number one.
How about a favorite song? That’s a hard one to pick too. It usually changes. I do have a favorite song though. It is Coldplay’s “Fix You.” I haven’t listened to it for a long time because I’m honestly kind of tired of it, but it’s still my favorite. I like it because of what it does to me. I’m the farthest thing from an expert when it comes to all the technical things about music, I’ll leave that to all of you tight jean wearing guys who seem to speak in another language when it comes to the music you listen to. But “Fix You” has this way of changing me. I can’t tell you how, or why, but it just does. Every song that I know has a “my favorite part.” My favorite part of “Fix You” is probably everyone’s favorite part of that song. You know, when the guitar comes racing in and then the drums drop in and suddenly life just seems really big. That song is so…epic. For some reason it gives me hope.
Music is an interesting…thing. I’ve heard it said that music builds a bridge between heaven and earth. I can understand that. Humans, all of us, respond to music in very powerful ways. It’s everywhere. Music isn’t only found in one culture or people group, but it’s everywhere. How did that happen? How did every group of people, in every part of the world, separated from each other, develop their own type of music? I have an idea.
My biggest question is why do we respond to music the way that we do? Seriously. I went to this show a few weeks ago at a little coffee shop by where I live. There was a band playing called Sleeping at Last, they are incredible by the way. A bunch of my friends were going to be there so I decided to stop by. I saw something incredible there. Now before this show I really didn’t know much about Sleeping at Last, but the people there did. I don’t know if you’re like me, but before a show I usually listen to the artist’s CD a lot, just to somehow get me even more excited about seeing them live. What’s funny is that whenever the band started playing a song that the crowd recognized everyone got really excited like they hadn’t heard the song in years, but I’m thinking to myself, “you probably just listened to this song on the way over here.” During one of their songs I decided to look around at the people, just to see what was going on. It was incredible. People had their eyes closed, singing the words with real passion. Almost all of them. They were feeling something, experiencing something. I turned back around to listen to the music with a smile on my face as long as the east coast. I wondered how someone could experience something like that and question the existence of God.
My question is why. Why do we respond to music the way we do? Particularly at a live concert. I have a few ideas I thought I would share.

1. I think it has a lot to do with the connection you feel between people at a concert. You are united with a group of people, singing the same music, experiencing the same moment. It really is a powerful thing. Whether it’s a worship band, or Jimmy Eat World, when I’m singing the same song with a group of people I’m somewhat overwhelmed.
2. As human beings we are created in the image of a Creator God. I think that this has a lot to do with it. People respond to created things. Whether it’s art, music, literature, nature, or origami we have this way of appreciating something that has been created. We appreciate beauty. All of us are creative in some way or another. Some people are gifted musically; some girls are really good with their make-up. Creativity is something that we all share. I think the response we have to music has a lot to do with the image we were created in.

Just some stuff to think about. Here’s a really beautiful Psalm that helps me to somewhat understand this.

“My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast;
I will sing and make music.
Awake my soul!
Awake, harp and lyre!
I will awaken the dawn.”
-Psalm 57:7-8

John Mayer and Deuteronomy

So, I was driving the other day and listening to John Mayer dominate all that is the guitar, and life was good. There’s this song on his CD, Continuum, called “The Heart of Life”; it’s a very endearing song and the chorus goes likes this, “Pain throws your heart to the ground. Love turns the whole thing around. No, it won’t all go the way it should, but I know the heart of life is good.” This threw my mind into a tailspin, in a good way of course.
There seems to be this understanding amongst the human race, at least the part of the human race that I’m familiar with, that the way things are aren’t the way things are supposed to be. People, no matter what they believe about God or don’t’ believe about God, can take an honest look at the state of the world and how people behave and interact with one another, and say to some extent that it’s not exactly right. For instance, people are becoming more and more interested in social justice. You can buy clothes and etc. that go towards a beautiful cause, you can watch television shows about fixing up a house for a family who desperately needs it, or you can wear a rubber bracelet around your wrist letting everyone know what you stand for. Those bracelets rip the hair off my arms. All that to be said it seems that people can recognize that the state of the world is not the state that it should be, or the state that it could be. You can’t watch the news, or read the paper and not hear about some horrible thing happening to some undeserving person and have something well up inside of you and scream, “That’s not right!” Again, this understanding is not limited to Bible believing Christians. I was at a music festival last December, it was not a Christian music festival, I promise. I remember this one band who after talking about some incredible vulgar things described with an impressive assortment of cuss words say, “This song is for all you out there who recognize that the world is not the way its supposed to be and who want to see it different.” I remember thinking, “hey, that’s me too.”
So, if we can recognize that the world is not the way its supposed to be, then does that mean that somewhere deep down inside of us we know in some way that there is a way it’s…supposed to be? It seems that is what John is getting at in his song. I don’t think he would mind if I called him John. Maybe he’s saying, “This world is painful, but behind it all there is good that can be discovered.” See, by recognizing that the state of the world isn’t the state that it was intended to be means that there is something we have to be comparing it to. Perhaps, the way it…was intended to be?
This all makes me wonder if John was reading Deuteronomy while writing this song. I doubt it, but check this out. Concerning the law that was given to the people, the Ten Commandments, God says, “Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not in heaven, so that you have to ask, ‘who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask ‘Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?’ No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.” The way we were supposed to live isn’t something that is out of reach or beyond our understanding; it’s there inside of us.
See God’s law wasn’t intended to be something that enslaved us, or kept us from life. No, it was meant to show us how life was truly meant to be. Later in chapter 32, Deuteronomy says, “They are not just idle words for you-they are your life.”
There is no doubt in my mind that this world is not the way it was meant to be. It is a dark place and horrible things do happen. But just imagine. Imagine what it would be like if we did live the way it was intended to be. That’s what Jesus came to do. He came to forgive, but not only to forgive, but to also enable us to live the life that God intended his people to live and to escape the slavery of sin. Check out 2nd Peter chapter 1:3-4. “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them YOU MAY PARTICIPATE IN THE DIVINE NATURE AND ESCAPE THE CORRUPTION IN THE WORLD CAUSED BY EVIL DESIRES.” The divine nature. That sounds something like the way life should be. That sounds like something I would like to be a part of.
Do you see what could happen? What this world could be like? What life could be like? Jesus came to redeem us, forgive us, and then enable us to live life the way it was meant to be. This world is dark, but I don’t think it has to be. Here are some words of hope found later in 2nd Peter chapter one. Peter is speaking of God’s word, and of the truth given to us in it. It’s beautiful for people who understand that the world is not the way it should be, but who also believe and have hope that God has not only forgiven us, but has also enabled us to live the way we were intended to live. Enjoy. “And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, AS TO A LIGHT SHINNING IN A DARK PLACE, UNTIL THE DAY DAWNS AND THE MORNING STAR RISES IN YOUR HEARTS.”

Always the Bride, Never a Bridesmaid

Did you know that the pineapple is the symbol of hospitality? They grace the entrance to many driveways throughout the state of South Carolina and for some reason they are supposed to be our way of saying welcome. I’ve never understood this. Take a look at the pineapple. It looks like a barbed hand grenade. The spiky little fruit doesn’t necessarily scream hospitality to me.
Anyway. I’ve bee thinking a lot about the church lately. Not a specific church, but the church in general, all of us. In 1 Timothy 2:15 Paul describes it as, “…God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.” This portion of a verse has had my mind spinning for a few weeks now. When I set what the church currently seems to look like, what it stands for, next to the words, “the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth”, I can’t help but feel a little foolish.
First of all, these are just my thoughts. I am in no way an expert on the church, I’m 24 years old for crying out loud, these are just observation, mostly questions.
I’m not a big fan of bashing the church. I’ve heard people say, and even myself at one time, “I love Jesus, I’m just not down with the church.” I’ve learned that this is a contradiction. Whatever you do in the name of Jesus you do as the church, whether you call it church or not. When I read through Scripture I find that Jesus seems to be quite fond of the church, even despite its weaknesses and failures. He refers to it as His bride. Most grooms are pretty fond of their brides and probably would take offense at people bashing them. Girls can be very critical of other girl’s weddings, even if it is one of their closest friends. After its over you can hear them talking about what they liked and what they didn’t like, that sort of thing. It seems to be the liberty of the bridesmaid to be critical of the brides wedding. Here’s the thing, we’re always the bride in this story and never the bridesmaid. The church should be something fought for and not against. There is only one hope for this world and it’s not the republicans. It’s not the democrats. It’s not liberals, or conservatives, or even the United States. Nope, it’s not Oprah either. It’s God’s household, the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. It seems to me that either you’re just adding to the noise, or you’re doing something about it.
With all that being said when I look at the church right now after reading Paul’s words in 1Timothy, I have to wonder if we have it right. Is this the pillar and foundation of the truth? We’re approaching Easter and I saw on the news a local church getting ready for their Passion play and I couldn’t help but ask, “Is this the best way to communicate what happened at Easter?” I don’t know. It just seems that we so often do a little dance, sing a little song and hope people pay attention. Or there are other churches who are definitely cutting edge, who know how to put on a good show that is very appealing, and very creative, but it sometimes feels like a corporation, or just a good show.
I just see one of two tendencies, both in myself and in others. Either we whore the church out in order to build a kingdom for ourselves, or we enslave it to dusty traditions that really aren’t effective anymore.
Its when I read those words, “the pillar and foundation of the truth”, it just really makes me want to be sure my heart is right. How much of what I’m doing is about me? How much of it is about communicating the realest of realities, the deepest of truths, something that is supposed to change everything?
Church isn’t about buildings, strategies, methods, or rock shows. It’s about people. My little experience with church planting here in the states makes me wonder about a lot of church planter’s motives. A lot of times people plant a church because they are unhappy with the church they’re in. It’s not the way they think church should be done, the music’s not loud enough, or whatever. So they decide to go plant a church where they can do things the way they want to. Then what happens is the church seems to attract other people who are unhappy with their church and how loud the music is and there you have it, a church is planted. Really? I wonder if it starts with a heart for a group of people. I hope to plant a church that reaches those who haven’t been reached. Who have never had the opportunity to complain about how loud the music is.
We have to be careful with how important our identity is to us as a church. I get a little nervous when things are said like, “This is who we are”, or, “This is what we do.” Are we supposed to have an identity? Doesn’t Paul say, “I become all things to all people?” If we’re to have an identity, there it is. Compromise the Gospel? Never. Do what it takes to reach those who haven’t been reached? Yes.
One more thing and I’m done. I promise. I can’t help but wonder, “what if the church was united?” I get really excited when I think about that. What if we weren’t so isolated? What if we understood the idea of the universal church? What if we were organized? We could honestly change the world. Our differences are pretty lame aren’t they? I mean compared to a bleeding world that is looking for something to put their hope in.
I’ll close with this beautiful passage of scripture from Romans 15 and then I’ll be done. “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The Heart of the Matter

There’s really no cute way to start this, no interesting way to capture your attention. This is just it. This is what I’ve been steamrolled with for the past four months. I can’t escape it, I can’t avoid it, I can’t live without it. God is real and He loves me.

Christianity isn’t a religion, it’s a relationship. Go ahead, pull out the t-shrt. We’ve all heard it before, we’ve probably said it numerous times, but it’s so profoundly true. To follow Jesus isn’t about submitting yourself to a religion, it’s about entering into a relationship. We say this though as if it were something that makes it easier to follow Jesus. Almost as if all we have to do is say that and “poof” we have a relationship with God and nothing has to change. It’s our answer for everything. “Why do you Christians do this, or don’t do that?” “Well it’s because it’s not a religion, it’s a relationship.” Booyah. Now who can I high five on my team? It seems that we’re so comfortable saying this, but do we really know what it means? Has it impacted the way our lives are lived?

There’s this rich young guy that has an encounter with Jesus. I can’t help but picture him as a Tom Brady-like character. You know, the kind of guy who seems to have everything and all you want to do is mess his really cool hair up and make some crack about his shoes. Maybe that’s just me. But in Mark chapter 10 this guy whom we all would assume has it all together runs up and…falls at the feet of Jesus. He doesn’t tug Jesus’ shirt and ask if he has a few minutes to spare, he doesn’t send him an e-mail, or say, “So, I have this friend who has this problem.” This man runs up to Jesus and he falls at his feet and he asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Do you see what I see here? This is a guy that’s tired, worn out, broken, defeated. Whatever he’s been doing isn’t enough. We learn later that supposedly he’s been keeping the rules like a good Jewish rock star should his whole life, but its not working. In the words of Bono, “he still hasn’t found what he’s looking for.”

After asking him about his obedience to the rules, it says that Jesus looked at him and loved him and then told him to go sell everything he had, give it to the poor, and then to come follow him. This was basically Jesus telling this guy to put the commandments into practice. The two greatest commandments were to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. This would have been demonstrated by giving what he had to the poor and then to go follow Jesus. Normally I would read this and be like, “Woah Jesus, settle down, can’t you tell that this guy is broken. Aren’t you being a little harsh?” That’s before I read Jesus’ command through what he says in verse 21. “Jesus looked at him and loved him.” What Jesus was doing was in no way harsh. He was offering him a way out. He was attempting to rescue him from religion.

He was trying to earn eternal life. Not live in it. Jesus would later say that eternal life is to know the Father. This was the most compassionate thing Jesus could do. Stop trying to earn it. Quit subscribing to a list of do’s and don’t’s, quit trying to present yourself as ok, quit following a set of rules, and…follow me.

The commandments that God gave to His people Israel were never meant to be just a set of rules that they were supposed to follow because God wanted them to. It was how they would actually be able to know God, how they would enter into a relationship with him. Read Deuteronomy 6:4-9, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”

These commandments should find there home in our hearts, not our minds. They are a way of life, a way of communication. Rob Bell points out that what is really going on here is God is entering into a marriage contract with His people. This is what is expected of you, and this is what you can expect of me.

His commandments are not meant to restrict or suffocate us. They are meant to guide us into life, the way it was meant to be. God says in Deuteronomy 30, “See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.” He says later in the chapter, “Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life…” It almost seems as if God is pleading is chapter 5 of Deuteronomy, “Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever.” God desires us to obey so that we can experience life abundantly, as Christ would put it, the way life was meant to be. Life filled with love, joy, peace, compassion, forgiveness, grace, and truth. God is real, and He loves me.

This is where obedience is born. What I do and what I don’t do is not just about me following the rules, but it’s about me communicating to God that I love Him, and that His way is right. My disobedience is betrayal. Let that word sink in. It’s not necessarily God’s rules that are broken, but it’s His heart.

Think about it. We find the resurrected Jesus standing with Peter on a beach only a few days after Peter has denied Jesus three times. What is the question Jesus asks Peter? It’s not, “Are you sorry?”, or “How are you going to fix this, make this right?” He asks, “Do you love me?” And that’s always the question we are presented with. Do we love God?

Why do I say all of this? I think its because we miss out on so much, everything really, when our faith is nothing more than a bunch of stuff we know. 1 Corinthians 8:1-3 says, “We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God.” What we… know? What can we know about a God that has no limits? You finish right where you started with Him, infinitely behind. But we can love Him. We can be in a relationship with Him.

So right now. Stop. Be devastated by the fact that there is a God and that He loves you. Right now He fills up the space in the room you are sitting in. He is there. He is in the air you just breathed. He holds you together. Be quiet. Listen. He’s there. Right now. Acts 17 says that in Him we live and move and have our being. God is real, and He loves you.

Why I Need You

One of the best things to happen to me in a while is getting to be a part of what we at Midtown call a life group.  It’s basically a group of guys who don’t pretend to have it all together, but who genuinely want to be more like Christ.  You guys are amazing.

 

God has taught me a lot through this group, namely, the power of sharing life together.  We were talking a few weeks ago about what to do when you feel apathetic.  You know, those times when you know how much Christ loves you, but you just aren’t experiencing it.  You can’t really get excited about anything, you feel somewhat numb.  What do you do?  I’d hate to say it, but this is a place that those of us who follow Christ will find ourselves more often than we would like.

 

“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.  And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”  Ephesians 3:16-19

 

I’ve read this passage so many times, but the last time I read it something jumped out at me that I’ve never really paid much attention to before.  It’s the “together with all the saints” part.  Here’s what I got to thinking; maybe the only way we can experience the width, length, height, and depth of Christ is by being in community with all the saints.  What do you think?  Paul says this love surpasses knowledge.  It’s not just knowing it, its experiencing it, its encountering it…together.  Are we the primary vessel by which God communicates His love to us?   I think so.

 

Romans 15: 5-6 says, “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

 

Endurance and encouragement seem to be good remedies for apathy. How do we receive that?  Unity perhaps?  I’m seeing this trend everywhere in Scripture.  Jesus says the two greatest commandments are to love the Lord, your God with all your heart, mind, and strength and then to love your neighbor as yourself.

 

Here’s why this is important.  When we are apathetic, when we are depressed, when we find ourselves backsliding, or something devastating happens we have a tendency to withdraw and to isolate, don’t we?  When we aren’t experiencing God’s love we pull away from the primary vessel by which God show’s His love, people.

 

We were talking in my life group about how energizing our times together are.  If I’m honest, on my way to life group I’m not exactly looking forward to it. I’m tired from work, I feel sucked dry from trying to motivate people all day, and I’m not really sure I feel all that excited about doing the whole spiritual thing.  On my way home from life group that couldn’t be farther from the truth.  I feel like I could conquer the world.  I feel inspired, I feel refreshed, I feel…loved.

 

A few weeks ago I was about to go into work and I was worn out, and a bit grumpy.  My roommate Heathe, and I started catching up on what God was up to in our lives.  After about a 15 minute conversation my work wasn’t ready for me.  I was a different person.  From a 15 minute conversation?

 

In fact some of the moments when I’ve felt the closest to God are moments spent in my kitchen.  For some reason that’s where all the good conversation takes place.  Sitting on the countertops, telling stories, laughing until my throat is sore.  Or like this summer when we had a college Bible study in my living room.  People, just talking about life and God, saw a group grow from about 5 to over 30 in a few weeks.  Talking about God is pretty appealing. 

 

So maybe you’re feeling apathetic, lethargic, un-inspired.  Maybe you’re backsliding, forgetting your first love.  Maybe you’re battling depression or maybe something has totally destroyed the world you live in.  Stop trying to sort it out on your own.  You can’t.  Try this.  Try starting a conversation with someone with these words, “God is…” or “God isn’t…” and see what happens from there.  Rob Bell says that two of the most powerful words in the universe are, “me too.” 

 

You need people.  I need people.  People need us.  Who are we making ourselves available to?  Who are we sharing life with?  It seems to me that in order to not just know that God loves us, but to actually experience it, feel it, we need each other.  This is why I need you, and this is why you need me.

Easy

My favorite part of a song has to be the part where all the other instruments drop out except the drums and vocals. I think I like it because it draws your attention to what’s being said and it offers an opportunity for the audience to participate by singing the lyrics back as loud and as bad as they can. I don’t know what musicians call this part, but I call it my favorite part. That’s what everyone should call it from here on out, Nick’s favorite part. That would be awesome.

I know I used this in my last blog, but I want to use it again.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give rest for your souls. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

I’m about to do something that I normally don’t like doing. I’m about to use a dry dusty word that is going to require me to explain what I mean. I feel as though we Christians operate with far too many presuppositions in how we present Christ to people. Did you catch the word? Presuppositions; what we already assume to be true. For instance, trying to get someone to believe that they should trust Jesus because the Bible says he is the Son of God. When we say that we are assuming that the Bible is true, and that is has authority to tell us what we should believe. Do you see the problem? What if someone says, “Well I don’t think the Bible is true, I think its made up.” I do think that the Bible is the word of God and I do think that you can believe and trust Jesus because the Bible tells us to, but maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves in terms of communicating the person of Jesus to others.

I was listening to some Jacky J (Jack Johnson) this morning and there’s a line in a song that almost made me label him as a prophet. “Love is the answer for at least most of the questions in my heart. Like why are we here? And where do we go? And how come it’s so hard?” I found myself saying, “Yeah Jack, me too.” I don’t know what Jack Johnson believes about the world we live in, but I do think that we can agree on what people long for and how we should be treated. Maybe in a general way, maybe not even specifically, but there’s bound to be a connection there.

I think that the most appealing thing about Christianity is…Jesus. No, seriously. The way that Jesus lived and the way he taught us to live is probably something most people can agree on as being a beautiful way to live. A life spent loving people, forgiving people, giving yourself to what’s right, compassion, humility, integrity. These are things that people can generally agree on as being things that make this world…better.

That’s what Jesus is saying in Matthew. He is saying, come follow me, learn from me, live the way I live. A yoke was understood to be the teachings of a Rabbi. When you took their yoke upon you, you held to their teachings. Holding to the teachings of Jesus will bring rest for our souls.

Maybe how we convince people to trust Jesus is to show them Jesus. Groundbreaking. Maybe less time reading books that prove historicity of Christ and more time spent reading the Gospels would do our world some good.

“God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.” 1 John 4:16-17

Hey You, Chin Up

"REEEEEEE...MIIIIIXXXX." When I used to hear this at the beginning of a song I would roll my eyes because I thought it was somewhat ridiculous. Most of the time the remixed version of a song wasn't all that different from the original version, they'd add like a synthesized clap or a baby crying or something like that. But have you ever belted out the word remix? Its fantastic. Honestly. Its a bit empowering. It could even be one of my new favorite things to do. I now understand why the remixers get so into it. Give it a shot, its great.

"As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fisherman. 'Come, follow me,' Jesus said, 'and I will make you fishers of men.' At once they left their nets and followed him." Mark 1:16-18

I used to read this passage and see Andrew and Simon leave their nets in some sort of hypnotic trance and follow this strange glowing Jesus, like he was some sort of martian or something. A lot of us have debated why they were so quick to follow Jesus. Some people say its because there was something about Jesus, something attractive, and I'm sure that's definitely part of the reason, but I feel like there's a whole lot more going on here.

I've heard this passage preached on a lot and you can learn a bunch of really interesting things if you do a little digging into the Jewish culture. The position of Rabbi wasn't something that kids decided to be, it was something they earned, see they were chosen. I've heard it said that every Jewish boy dreamed about being a Rabbi. They were the most respected people around. You were mandated to greet them with a kiss for crying out loud. Every boy began the journey to become a Rabbi together and as the process continued those that couldn't cut it were weeded out and left behind. Now if someone didn't have what it took to be a Rabbi he would return home to take on the trade of their father. Here's where we find Simon and Andrew...fishing. They were fisherman. Their dream wasn't being realized.

This is why I think they were so quick to follow Jesus. He was a Rabbi, a mysterious one at that. At his baptisim a few verses before, God Himself spoke about him, and John the Baptist seemed to think he was someone important. This Rabbi has offered our dream back to us. "Come follow me" was an invitation to these boys to do what Jesus was doing, it was a invitation to remember their dream.

Do you ever feel like you're just trying to get by? I know that the first year out of college for a lot of graduates is hard. You find yourself stuck in a cycle. You repeat what you did the day before. You wake up, go to work, come home, go to bed just to wake up the next day to repeat yourself. You begin to ask, what happened to the dreams I used to have? They've met head first with reality and now they seem almost silly and embarassing. I'm just working for the weekend. Trust me, this is a horrible way to live, but I think it describes most of America. Idealists and dreamers are looked down upon. People say they've lost touch with reality, their heads are in the clouds, things like that. When we live this way life is no longer life...its merely existence.

This why the invitation by Jesus is so great. His invitation is for you to remember your dream. The dream and the hope that your life actually counts for something. That there's more out there than this cyclical lifestyle that repeates itself day after day. There's a kingdom to advance, their is adventure to be had, right now, right here. Seriously. Think about what must be going on around you, in you, and about you if what we say we believe is actually...true. That there is a God that has created everything we see, touch, smell, think, and hear. That this God holds everything together, He holds the oceans in the palm of His hands, but He is also as close as to you as the very air you breathe, that He actually lives inside of you. That how we live actually impacts how things are and how things will be. That we are involved in a battle against darkness and the darkness is fading. See...the dream is alive, the dream is real and at every second of our day eternity dances at our fingertips.

You don't just go to work everyday. You aren't just finishing up college. You don't just go to high school. You're not just a parent, son, daughter, husband, wife, boyfriend, or girlfriend. You are God's workmanship...God's fiction, God's dream come true, created to do what He's dreamed about you doing. You were designed to encounter the devine, the eternal. All the time. Right now. It doesn't start later, or when you're ready...its happening now. The dream is still alive, and more than that...its real. You were designed to do more than exist, you were created to be alive.

Here's the invitation offered to us by Jesus, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" Matthew 11:28-30.

Here's to having the courage to dream again and the faith to believe that we have our dreams for a reason.

Real

I had to have an examination done a few days ago becauese I'm getting a new life insurance policy. The company sent a nurse to the house to give me my examination. Anyone else think this sounds kind of shady? Yeah, me too. Thats why I found it totally necessary to set the mood before she got there. You know, put on my bathrobe, close the blinds, light all the candles in the house and make sure some Kenny G was playing in the background. Alright, that didn't happen, but it really should have.

I've had some really interesting things happen to me lately. I've been a bit frustrated because I heard myself talking about how I have a heart for the homeless and how I want to "change the world", but I really didn't see myself doing anything about it. It really started to bother me. I really wanted a relationship with someone that I could...love, someone I could serve. The frustrating thing is that my schedule, probably like everyone elses, is a bit crazy. I was having a hard time trying to figure out how I was going to be able to go downtown through the week and see this happen. So, one day I was driving home from class and praying about this. I was very frustrated. I knew God had put this desire on my heart, but I didn't know how it was going to happen. So I prayed that God would make it happen. I'm home from class for ten minutes, TEN MINUTES, and I hear a knock on my door...in Lexington, South Carolina. I go to my door and there is standing, at my front door, a homeless woman named Deborah. She wanted a piece of furniture that we were throwing out. We spent some time together that day and we have been hanging out quite a bit since then. I tell you this not to pat myself on the back, but to share with you how real our God is. It blew my mind. Its still blowing my mind.

Here's where I'm at right now. I've heard myself talk about wanting to make the world a better place, about how I want to love people, grow the kingdom and all of that hoopla, but if I'm honest, most of the time I'm just trying to sound interesting. Truthfully, its cool to be involved in social action right now, people are all fired up about being involved in the next great cause, but do we mean it? Are we just looking for t-shirts? Are we just trying to sound interesting? We love to go to church and worship with our hands raised, but what are our hands doing after the service is over? Who are they serving? We join facebook groups, read the popular books, quote the revolutionaries, but who are we loving? What makes this movement real and not just a fad? Its people who are eager to do good to others. I'll leave you with this, some Scripture, the real Word of God.

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Galatians 6:9

"Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, paitent in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; morn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited." Romans 12:9-16

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us no love with with words or tongue, but with actions, and in truth." 1 John 3:16-18

This Is What Happens

I have no idea what I'm about to say, I've just been thinking some lately...

I bought a bowling glove when I was a kid, and I'm struggling to remember why. I didn't bowl that often and I wasn't really good at it. But I do remember convincing myself that I had to have this bowling glove. I think I even spent my own money on it. I remember wearing it in my bedroom, but never to a bowling alley. I must have thought it either looked somewhat "cool" or was I hoping it would give me magic powers.

For anyone that knows me, I somehow manage to quote a line from either Hook, Mrs. Doubtfire, or The Sandlot almost everyday. This isn't something that I try to do, it just happens. I found out that there's a sequel to The Sandlot and it features a girl on the team. This bothers me. A lot actually. Men...how do you feel about this? That was our movie! You know, "you play ball like a girl", that sort of thing. There can't be a girl on the team. Can't we have anything anymore? Honestly. You have Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants or whatever. How about we make a movie, The Brotherhood of the Traveling Slacks? Alright so that was a bit much.

Do you ever stop and think about how complicated a single moment in time is? Well if you haven't, try it sometime. Every moment involves so much. It all depends upon where you are, how you feel, what is going on, etc, etc. They are so intricate and complicated it almost makes my head hurt. The thing that really gets my head spinning is that everyone is sharing the same moment in time, but doing incredibly diverse things with it. Like right now, what is an Amish guy doing with this moment in time...not blogging thats for sure. What's he thinking about? What is important to him? Ah whatever, now this is getting weird. It just makes me feel small. There are so many stories out there that have nothing to do with me. Its actually kind of comforting.

And this is what happens when my brain gets to have recess.

This Is It

God loves you. Read it again. Again. At least one more time. This is it. This is where everything starts. This is how it finishes. This has to be the message the church, us, those that follow Jesus, will scream at the top of our lungs. This is what we have to be saying with a fierceness in our eyes that proves we believe it. This is where we find life, this is where we die. God's love. Its real. Its everything.

Why are people...people? Why are we here? Whats our "purpose?" All of those stuffy intellectual questions we ask around expensive cups of coffee find there answer somewhere in this truth. God loves you. I recently had a discussion with some people, fellow believers, about why we are here. The favored explanation was for God's glory. To bring glory to God. This is so true, but I don't think it satisfies my question. Put down your rock, and let me explain. When asked why we are here, why God created us I have a hard time believing that the answer is "for God's glory", because that sounds to me like before God created us He was lacking in something, glory perhaps? Was God sitting around in the cosmos and thinking, "I'm just not getting enough glory up here, what to do about that..." Now don't get me wrong, I do think everything, including us, exists for the sole purpose of bringing God glory, but I don't think its "why" we are here. I wonder if why God created us is more about what God would give then what He would get.

I think its because God loves us. Think about it. God, the best thing there is, who is not lacking in anything decided to create something that could share how good He is. I've heard it said that the most selfless thing a perfect being could offer would be Himself. So why did God create us? To give Himself. The best thing He could give. Because He loves us. The reason we were brought into existence is because God loves us. God loved us so much that we were created in a way that when we give God glory, enjoy just how good He is, we are most satisfied.

We have to understand this. We have to communicate this. Because this is where everything starts and ends. When we experience God's love, all that is required of us is to respond to it. That's what this is all about. Responding to the love of our Creator. Obedience isn't just obedience, its a response of love. Its the product of a relationship. Its not just following rules for the sake of following rules, its living in a way that allows you to have a relationship with God, who loves you. I've heard it said that your head will let you get away with a lot more than your heart will.

My friend told me about a conversation he had with a family member who is struggling to understand his position with God. The family member asked, "I just don't know where I stand. What am I supposed to do?" My friend responded with, "Its not about what you do." Its about realizing you're loved by God and then responding to that love.

Some of us claim to love God, to follow Him, but do we though? Really? I would like to think that to be loved by God means to find my satisfaction, my identity, my security, my worth, in Him, how He feels about me. To love Him back would be to live like a person who finds my satisfaction, identity, security and worth in Him. What are we wanting to love us?

We...love because God first...loved...us. This is it.