Where I Am

Being Fed

2007-11-01T09:21:00.000-06:00

There’s a foundational belief within Christian culture that is killing us. It’s something that we’ve been told for so long that our acceptance of it has become akin to accepting that the earth is round. When people say it we give an affirming nod and don’t ever question its validity because it has become a part of our framework of life and faith. It doesn’t have to do with our view of Jesus, the return of Christ, or some aspect of morality. It is the belief that we must be fed for our faith to grow. I suppose people may mean a number of different things when they say they need to be “fed spiritually,” the most common meaning perhaps being that they need to be taught. People posit that there must be someone who has more advanced biblical training who pours over the Scriptures to unlock their meaning and then deliver that meaning in an engaging and entertaining package. This ends up being one of the primary functions of the church—from sermons to Sunday school to youth group—people are taught through medium and message that they cannot grow unless they are fed. But contrary to the desired outcome of spiritual growth, this idea of being fed is a toxin that has invaded our faith and is killing us.

Before I move on I need to clarify what I’m not saying. First, I am not saying teaching is bad or useless. In the Old Testament, the life of Christ, and the ministry of the apostles, teaching played an important role. So it is not teaching itself that has a negative impact on faith. Neither am I saying that teaching is the only thing people refer to when they express a need to be fed. This is also used to refer to being led into worship through music, corporate prayer, and guided reflection. I think the rest of this article can address these elements though the focus is on the desire to be fed through teaching. Second, I am not saying that the idea of “feeding” is not biblical or legitimate. In John 6 Jesus explicitly says that we should feed on him. He also says that doing the will of the Father is his food when he is being tempted by Satan. So the words of Jesus make it clear that “feeding” is a legitimate biblical idea.

So what am I saying? First, the concept of being fed involves a passive acceptance of the proclamation of an expert. People pour into church buildings on Sunday morning to sit in a pew (or chair) to listen diligently as the expert pours forth the store of knowledge they have amassed through hours of study during the week. The primary problems with this come from the form that it takes, not the content. This form of consumption plays directly to the consumerist and entertainment values of our culture. We expect someone else to create a product that excites us and makes our lives better, preferably with as little work on our part as possible. If someone else is willing to immerse themselves in the Scripture then we don’t have to. All we have to do is show up and consume what they give us. In addition, we expect what we are spoon-fed to be captivating, entertaining, and hopefully comedic. I once had a professor who said it was a sin to bore people in preaching. The two main things that would keep us from this horrible sin? Entertainment and clarity.

In most churches on Sunday morning people are listening to a professional expound Scripture to them in ways that are entertaining and clear. This creates the impression that we have the right to easily accessible teaching. There are two major problems with this. The first is that we live in a culture bathed in entitlement and consumption. There might be other cultures where large group lectures as the primary means of teaching wouldn’t pose the same cultural issues, but in the United States our teaching methods reinforce some of the most toxic aspects of our culture. As a consumer, what happens if you’re not fully satisfied with a product? You quit using it and find something you like better. Not so bad when you’re talking about dish soap or cell phones, but that mindset is downright putrid when it comes to the church. The solution to some unclear or unentertaining sermons is to go to another church with a better product. It’s not so uncommon for people who switch churches to give the reason, “We’re just not being fed.” We come to believe that it is our right to be given clear and entertaining instruction from the pulpit each week (or moving and uplifting worship music). If our current experience is not palatable to our delicate tastes then we move on to a tastier option.

The second major problem with believing we have the right to accessible teaching is that it’s not how Jesus taught. Jesus was compelling, but he was not always clear. He spoke in parables for the express purpose of making the message more difficult to understand. There were numerous times when even his closest followers had to ask him what he meant because they couldn’t figure it out. Jesus’ example should point us in the direction of being provocative and compelling, but not necessarily easily accessible. Jesus method of teaching points us away from the “being fed” mentality. Jesus placed some food in front of people, but it was more like crab legs than applesauce. If people wanted to be filled from his words they had to work for it a little bit. They had to stick with it, work through the difficulties, and be patient. Jesus gave people what they needed for sustenance, but he didn’t put it in a bottle for them.

The American Christian idea of “being fed” is also toxic because it allows people to believe that soaking in some knowledge each week translates directly to spiritual growth. The teaching of Jesus, his example of life, and the words of the rest of Scripture are replete with the call to good deeds and obedience. All the knowledge in the world does not lead to Christian maturity. And if people are not displaying the fruit of a real faith, most of the time our solution is to feed them more. We suppose that if we can just cram enough sustenance down their throats it has to eventually result in some kind of action. Unfortunately, more and more food without action just leads to spiritual obesity. The longer someone lives in this state, and the more obese they become, the more unlikely it is that their continual feeding will ever result in anything. I was at a conference recently where a speaker compared the state of much of the church in the West to “obese babies with milk running out of the corners of their mouths.” This picture is shocking because it strikes so close to the truth.

So what should we do about it? For starters we need to begin expecting that as people grow in faith they will be increasingly capable of feeding themselves. We live in a place where the Bible is accessible in multiple translations, there are endless resources to help in explaining Scripture, and if we step back from our overloaded schedules to see what is really important we can create time to be with other believers where we will be able to feed each other. This approach may concern us that some people will choose not to feed themselves and their faith might suffer. Can you imagine Jesus, the man who taught things so difficult that most of his followers left, feeling a great deal of sympathy if that does happen? Maybe people need to wean from the spiritual bottle so that they are confronted with the importance and validity of their faith.

We also need to realize that as we participate with Christ in his redemption of the world we will be fed by him. Jesus said his food was to do the will of the Father. In the same way, when we do the will of God as revealed in Christ and through the Holy Spirit, we will be well fed by Christ. We will be fed more by Jesus as we participate in the spiritual and physical redemption of the world than we will passively consuming words from a speaker. As we share friendships where spiritual questions are shared, growth will naturally take place. We will be caused to seek out the answers to questions we have never considered and through that process our faith will grow. We will be feeding ourselves.

There is no doubt that all new life begins on milk. There is nothing wrong with providing new believers with a bottle. But our goal should not be to keep them sucking from it the rest of their lives; rather we should give ourselves to weaning them, causing them to grow to adulthood, and to feed themselves. But we cannot lead others where we have not been. It is time for the Western church to realize the destructive effects of a “being fed” mentality, to begin to exercise, and to learn to feed themselves. When this happens we will learn to mutually feed each other and to feed on Christ as we join him where he already is, in mission in the world.

infuse logo holder

2007-06-01T13:33:00.001-06:00

Just to hold the logo online

Now I Lay My Blog To Sleep

2007-02-06T19:58:00.000-07:00

Congratulations! You are now taking in the last post ever to be posted on this blog. I know, it's not really that exciting but I was trying to build it up.

I am now contributing to two blogs--

Infuse: This is the blog for our church plant that I am doing with Cory Whitehead, who will be leading it with me. The address is http://infusing.blogspot.com

Brothers Lee: This is my new blog about whatever that I'll be doing with my brother. The address is http://brotherslee.blogspot.com

I'd love to have you check them out. May this blog rest in peace.

For Real?

2007-02-01T11:18:00.000-07:00

Just when you thought indulgence couldn't go any further, a restaurant in Atlantic city announces the $1000 brownie. Sounds like a good use of $1000 to me. To see why it's so much click here.

I Like Totally Thought I'd Post This

2007-01-24T17:35:00.000-07:00

I am sitting in a coffee shop right now and couldn't help overhearing a young woman who is speaking very loudly next to me. She's actually talking about how her cousin has been brought to faith in Christ and some other great things God is doing in her life. But I can only focus on one thing--how much she says "like."

Surely this is one of the great epidemics of our culture. This word serves no purpose and when people get to the point of using it as much as this young woman next to me it makes them sound less intelligent. It's really unfortunate because she clearly is very intelligent. And it's more ingrained than you might think. Read the following passage at a regular speed and see how normal it sounds.

"I am like totally like freaking out. It has been such a like busy week, and like I like just can't find any time to like sleep. I like feel like I will never be myself again. And like, I like, really like need to find like some time to like slow down. It's just like so like crazy."

In three and a half lines like was used 15 times and it doesn't even sound weird!

YIKES!!!

2007-01-18T10:49:00.000-07:00

I was watching the ol' television last night for the first time in almost a week (I don't know why I need to tell you that, apparently I have a nagging sense of guilt for how much I watch television and feel the need to say I don't watch it much (which I guess I wouldn't have if I really didn't watch it much), and I saw a commercial that I liked less than having another snow storm.

Before I describe what exactly it was, you know it's going to be bad from the get-go when it's an imitation of a commercial that has had some success. You know the "easy button" commercials for Staples? I guess some marketing exec for Office Depot was watching that and thought, "that's pretty clever. We should have an easy button commercial. Oh, wait, we can't because then they'll sue us for all our self-sealing envelopes and over-priced ink cartridges. Whatever shall we do? And why am I using words like shall? I am so awesome. My vocabulary is vociferous and voracious. I know! Instead of an easy button we'll have a disembodied arm come out of a box and point at things! Will my boisterousness never end? Wherefore shalt I matriculate to henceforth?" (At this point I should note that I do know wherefore means why and not where, I have more sense than this guy.)

And thus the "disembodied hand coming out of a box and pointing at things" commercial was born. I seriously can't believe someone thought it would be a good idea. Not only is it copying another company, but it makes you wonder what kind person comes up with unattached body parts as a good idea to promote their company.

Take 15 Minutes

2007-01-15T15:37:00.000-07:00

Today we remember the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His gospel-inspired vision for the future of our country is something worth taking fifteen minutes to listen to. Every time I listen to it I am further awed by his embodiment of the biblical principles of non-retaliation and a passion for justice. Whether you have listened to this speech before or not I'd encourage you to take the time to do so today and praise God for raising up people like Dr. King to advance the work of the kingdom of God.

I'm Dating

2007-01-12T10:24:00.000-07:00

I had to express my immense joy over the undeniable fact that I am going on a date with one Michelle S. Lee tonight. As you only get about two dates a year once you have kids this is a truly momentous occasion.

My thanks to Mr. Ryan and Mrs. Erika Lee for making this all possible.

Stop Fakin' the Funk

2007-01-09T09:48:00.000-07:00

I am sitting in a coffee shop this morning, and as I see people interact over their burnt bean beverage I wonder, how did we learn to be so fake? People make small talk and all of it strikes me as a show. Does anyone really think hearing about our next snowfall deserves a chuckle, or that two sentences will convey much of anything about how a person's family is doing? We ask questions and don't want to know the answer. We give answers that we've given six million times before, and we do it without thinking. The kids are always good. Our life is always busy. We're always looking forward to the weekend.

I suppose at this point we're enculturated this way. Being real isn't all that acceptable. But how did our culture get this way?

I highly doubt that deep down anyone enjoys being fake, but I don't think we think about what's deep down very often. It struck me again today that authenticity should be one of the things that will distinguish Christianity from our culture. To desire to know real answers. To ask real questions. To stop the dance of fakin' the funk. It's kind of awkward anyway.

Vacation Moments

2007-01-05T10:24:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Cory's blog, I am going to recap my top ten vacation moments from the last week, and like Cory, they will be in no particular order.

1. Having God answer our prayers that our kids would make it through the plane ride there okay. (Incidentally, we should have prayed harder for the way back as Ayla had a screaming contest with herself and Isaiah thought it would be fun to kick everything in sight, especially the seat of the guy in front of us.)

2. Watching Isaiah play with his cousins and our friends' kids. He only hurt one of them (and it was by accident)!

3. Having coffee with Cory and talking about church.

4. Going in the hot tub at my parents' house.

5. New Year's Eve with all of our friends from college. It's something I look forward to all year.

6. More specifically, playing the game where you run around the pool table on New Year's Eve. It's a workout!

7. Spending time with our families talking about our lives and how God is working in us.

8. Getting to play about ten games of Madden 07. It's fun to play video games once in a while!

9. Going to Coffee D'Vine with my wife for forty-five minutes without the kids!

10. Getting back to Denver and our 18 feet of snow. It's snowing again today!

Life Rhythms and Consumerism

2006-12-26T16:23:00.000-07:00

After writing my previous post I came across this quotation from Alan Hirsch in the book "The Forgotten Ways." I hadn't thought of it, but discovering the joy in the rhythm of life is anti-consumeristic. This as opposed to the consumerism of waiting for the next big thing to bring meaning and purpose to life. The quotation is long, but worth it. (This will all make a little more sense if you read the post right before this first.)

"Under this excessive influence of the market, experiences, indeed life itself, tends to become commodified. In such an economy, people are viewed as mere consumptive units. The suburbs all orbit around the central consumerist temple called The Shopping Mall. Teenagers walk aimlessly up and down these soulless corridors as if looking for an answer that somehow evades them in the windows. Their parents saunter through the same malls indulging in a dose of 'retail therapy.' Disneyland, cruise vacations, extreme sports, drugs, and the like are consumable experiences. It has often been noted that in the postmodern condition we can consume new identities like we do new clothes. We do this either by moving into the groovier inner city, or by dropping out and becoming feral, changing our clothes, changing our friends and looking around for new ones, or buying this or that product that identifies us with new, more desirable networks of people. In this cultural situation everything, even personal identity and religious meaning, becomes a commodity that we can now trade in, depending on the latest fads, and by consuming the latest products."

Becoming Rhythmic

2006-12-26T15:01:00.000-07:00

I have always looked forward to the next big event of life. My birthday, the first day of school, going to summer camp, moving on to junior high then high school then college then seminary, getting a date getting engaged and getting married, having a kid and then having another one. It seems I have lived life seeing 90% of it as a means to an end. The necessary time waiting in line before hopping on the roller coaster. Mundane but something you had to put up with to get the next high.

Now that I'm old(er) I'm learning to see that all of life is to be enjoyed. I'm learning to appreciate the rhythm of life. Getting up, seeing my family, working, relaxing, cooking, reading, sleeping. I guess none of those are mountain-top experiences, but they're all great. They're my life, the life God has given me to enjoy. I'm learning to love the road and not just the destination.

Advertisers Be Crazy

2006-12-12T10:08:00.000-07:00

I have now been subjected to GEICO commercials for what seems like decades, but I apparantly had never really listened to one before. This is probably a good thing. But for some whack reason I actually processed the soundwaves my inner ear was picking up this week.

Beside the fact that the commercials are stupid, what they say is also stupid. The tag line they used was something like, "15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance." Really? I get that they want the 15s to match, but if you think about that statement it's really like saying nothing. If you really play out what they're saying, it comes out "if you spend some time on our website there's a good chance that you will save lots of money, some money, or no money." So profound.

Non-Doctrinal Heresy

2006-12-10T06:59:00.000-07:00

With a title like the one on this post I'm sure millions will scamper to my seldom updated website to peruse my musings! So the title's kind of crappy, but I am being reminded again this week of something I heard a bit in the past and I think it's important.

The circles I tend to run in like to focus significant attention on maintaining doctrinal purity and identifying heresy. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but why is it that we are so stringent about doctrine yet so weak on behavior? You can be a heretic for saying Jesus wasn't human, but if you hate your neighbor we'll let it slide. Believing the Bible's a collection of nice thoughts will get you booted, but we understand that you're too busy to ever lift a finger on behalf of the poor. I think you get the point.

I suppose there are many reasons this is the state of things, but I know that one of the outcomes is a loss of credibility for Christianity (in the words of "The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience"). We behave no different than anyone else and wonder why the church has so little influence on others and on our culture. We may be focusing all our attention on the lesser form of heresy.

Click Clique Click

2006-11-28T22:44:00.000-07:00

I was all ready to write a tight post on how cliques are really a good thing and then I had to go look up what clique meant. I know, stupid move! It's a lot easier to write about things if they mean what you want them to mean and not what they really mean. Of course, if you subscribe to a linguistic theory that words really only mean what a given society says they mean then I could say I'm my own society and therefore words mean whatever I want them to mean. Actually, I think I'll do that for "clique" right now.

It seems that especially in church settings we focus on everyone interacting with everyone else. We don't want people hunkering down with their nice cozy group of peeps and pretending the rest of the world doesn't exist. True. But, I don't think cliques are all bad (and my definition of clique is a group of people that click, but don't purposefully exclude others from entering into their group). The reality of life is that some people click and others don't. We can all be friendly and get to know each other a little bit, but you just can't know everyone at a deep level. So it makes sense that people would spend the majority of their time with a handful of people and that this would best suit their spiritual and emotional growth.

The key to this is that others will enter the group who will fit well with an existing clique. Therefore cliques need to be welcoming of new people and find out where they fit best. This is what will really make a person feel as though they fit. I've seen this happen a couple times recently in The Reclamation. People who didn't really feel like they fit found a small group, a clique if you will (or even if you won't), of people who they fit with. They haven't pushed away the rest of the group because of it, but they've come to associate themselves with the entire group more clearly.

So here's to cliques!

My Doctor Has the Social Calendar

2006-11-21T21:29:00.000-07:00

Each week our staff gets together to pray for about ten people/families in the church on Tuesday. We invite the people to either send requests to us or come and pray with us. Today there was a couple who came to pray with us that blew me away.

Once we were all there the wife pulled out a little notebook and said, "I was wondering how we can pray for all of you. I used to go and visit people who couldn't get out and I don't have the energy for that anymore, but I can still pray for people." We proceeded to go around and each share our lives with her for the next twenty minutes. She would ask us questions about the things we shared and took notes to make sure she remembered.

When we finished that it was finally time for the couple to share requests they had. The wife spoke again, she pretty much did all the talking except comic relief.

"Well, you could pray for his health (putting her hand on his shoulder). He's lost all his sight in his left eye and they say he's going to lose it in his right eye too."

At this point the husband chimed in and said, "And I already lost my hair," with a smile.

"He has to have an MRI because he's having inner ear trouble. He blacks out sometimes and can't hear anything. He's having balance problems and they're not able to figure out what is wrong. He has a partially blocked artery. He has a heart murmer but they can't do anything about it because of his other health problems."

She went on to describe at least a dozen problems he was having, all the time both of them smiling. She said they were spending a lot of time at the doctor and he said they call their doctor schedule their social calendar.

They went on to share other very difficult things they were dealing with, things that clearly pained them. But through it all they praised the Lord for his goodness and never seemed defeated. They displayed the joy of the Lord despite circumstances more than anyone I've ever met. They were an example of finishing well and I hope that one day I'll be able to follow in those footsteps.

One Thing Before the Other Things

2006-11-17T14:44:00.000-07:00

Before I get into the four ways we often try and take control I realized there is an important preface to the discussion. The freedom I will advocate in these four areas can only work where there is a whole-hearted committment to the mission of making disciples (and by that I mean bringing people into a relationship with Christ who did not previously have one and journeying together through the rest of life toward Christlikeness). The level of freedom I will advocate will inevitably cause problems if this committment is not present. If our focus is always Christ and the mission he has given us freedom has a chance, but if our focus shifts to anything else, including things that are about Christ (such as knowing a lot about Christ, serving others, spiritual disciplines, etc.), we are bound to abuse freedom. On with the show!

Taking Control?

2006-11-15T14:54:00.000-07:00

An issue that I have been thinking about for quite a while now was crystalized for me recently in reading a book called The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church. It is a book that was written in the 1960's by a man named Roland Allen and he writes in regard to foreign missions. I've found that what he wrote is blatantly applicable to the church in the U.S. as well.

The focus of the book is on what things help or hinder the spontaneous expansion of the church (that's why the title is so sweet, it totally fits with the point of the book!). The primary thing he identifies as a hinderance to this expansion is control. He speaks specifically about the control Western missionaries felt they needed to have over teaching, doctrine, morality, and practice of those they were reaching with the gospel.

So in my next four posts I want to look at each of those areas one at a time in regard to the evangelical church in the United States. I hope it will provoke some good discussion as this is not an easy thing to accept for those of us (myself included!) who do the controlling.

Just Don't

2006-11-11T08:38:00.000-07:00

I have some advice for everyone, don't make bets. I know gambling or betting any sum of money is a no-no for the Evangelical church, but I'm not necessarily talking about money. There are other things you could bet, such as who gets control of the remote, having to eat olives, or having to wear a Raiders shirt when you're a Broncos fan. It's just not worth it. Because the thing is, you might lose. I know, you think you can handle it and the consequences for someone else would be funny, but trust me, you could lose.

Now this post has nothing to do with anything else you see on this blog, especially not whatever comes right before this post, it's just some wisdom I think we should all follow. So no more betting Trevor! I mean, you guys.

God shed grace on me...

2006-11-11T08:34:00.000-07:00

As we grow older and mature sometimes we find that we don’t always believe everything our parents believe and have taught us all of our lives. They do give us some undeniable truths: Look both ways before crossing the street, Christ is Lord, I am smarter and much better looking than Ryan (and don’t tell Ryan but my parents love me more…). It is when we grow and learn and start to formulate our own thoughts and identities that life can get complicated.

With freedom comes responsibility. My parents have always supported Ryan and me in our choices in life and they have certainly been the most influential people in my life. But what do you do when you have found out that your parents have been feeding you a deceitful line your whole life? How do you cope with learning that your parents (and especially as a guy, that your dad has fooled you) have led you astray? As I have thought through this and deeply lamented over truth, I have made a major decision. With the love and support of Michelle, I am ready to confess that I have seen the light and I want to be able to publicly profess to all of my friends and family that…

I will tell you in a minute. First, I want to say that this has been a painful experience and if not for the grace of a loving heavenly Father, the support and encouragement of the most beautiful woman in world, and most importantly my mentor and personal hero James G. I wouldn’t be able to share this with the world.

Mom, Dad and world I am now ready to breakthrough the pain and proudly tell the world that I have seen the truth and it shall set me free! I must do it this week before the game. The Vikings are not for me…I LOVE THE PACKERS!!!!!!!!!! Green Bay is the football Mecca of the world! I love Brett Farve. I love Green and Gold. Dang, I love me some cheese.

Now comes the road to a healthy family relationship and hopefully restoration. Dad, I plead with you to stop denying what you know is truth…The Packers are the right team to love and that before it is too late, please join me in the truth and show Farve some love before it is too late and the prophet is called home to retirement in LA. For the love of all that is right, repent and go green/gold. I love you mom, dad, and Ryan but I must do what’s right and I hope you will join me.

Can we all say it together…I loves me some cheese!

Dedicating

2006-10-11T12:37:00.000-06:00

This past Sunday we had the priviledge of dedicating Ayla at church. It really is a dedication of her and a committment to help her develop as a woman of faith. Below is the text we read on Sunday morning.

As we dedicate Ayla today there are many characteristics we hope she will possess in increasing measure as she grows through childhood and becomes an adult. There will be many people she will look to as models for this process—her mom, grandmothers, friends, and others who we don’t know yet. But there are three biblical mentors we would like to give Ayla today. We hope she looks to these women as well as she becomes a woman. One of the beautiful things about them is that none of them were perfect, but God used them all in profound ways.

First is Esther. Though I doubt Esther knew the perilous task she would be given when she became a part of the king’s court, and we aren’t even explicitly told her motives for doing what she could to save her people, she acted courageously. Her boldness in going before the king could have ended in her death, but she believed strongly enough in what she needed to do that nothing could stop her. We pray that when Ayla is faced with the choice between what is right and what is easy she will be courageous like Esther and choose what is right.

Next is Deborah. This is the only female judge the Bible records. She was a leader of her people. She exuded one of the primary characteristics of good judges—wisdom. Scriptures tell us that true wisdom comes from God, and we pray that Ayla will seek this wisdom as she grows. The kind of wisdom James describes when he says “the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.”

The third woman we give Ayla as a mentor is Mary Magdalene. This was a woman of great and passionate faith in Jesus. She was the one who sat quietly with an open mind and heart at the feet of Jesus. She questioned Jesus when she didn’t understand why he had allowed her brother to die. She rejoiced well when she found out that her friend and Lord had risen from the dead. Whether faith was joyful or painful, easy or difficult, mundane or extraordinary, she was always “all in.” Her devotion to Christ was never in question, even when things didn’t quite make sense. She learned to love Jesus with a reckless abandon that can only be described as beautiful. It is our prayer that Ayla too will learn to follow Christ with a beautifully reckless abandon through her entire life.

So Ayla, our prayer for you is that you will grow into a woman who is courageous, wise, and wholeheartedly devoted to faith in Christ. We will do our best to help you become this woman.

A Cold First One

2006-09-22T12:52:00.000-06:00

My camping experience is very limited. I did go on a week-long canoe trip to the Boundary Waters in Canada, but other than that my brother and I camped out in our back yard a few times when we were kids. We lived in the lap of luxury in our two person tent (which was small for a twelve and eight year old, let alone two adults).

Well, Colorado is supposedly one of the best places to camp and I’ve never been. I guess I have a hard time getting amped up about sleeping on the ground when I have a bed at home. But tonight a group from the Reclamation is going camping. Remember this is my first time and think about that as I end with the forecast.

Friday high: 34
Friday night low: 27
Snow showers are likely.

By the way, next weekend it’s supposed to be in the mid to upper 50’s. Here’s to camping in Colorado!

I'm a Genius

2006-09-20T10:37:00.000-06:00

I'm sitting in Caribou Coffee shop of Englewood, CO 80113 this morning sipping some roasted (a fancy word for burned) bean flavored water that is dancing across my tastebuds and reading some riveting commentaries on the biblical book of James (page 1118 in your bibles). As you are probably able to deduce, the morning is going great.

I whipped out my headphones to listen to some tunes on the ol' HP to drown out the cacophony of voices overwhelming the house music. I plugged them in, fired up Windows Media Player (yes, I know I need to download iTunes, trust me, I'm more disappointed in myself than you are in me) and turned on the jams. The sound wasn't as full as I remembered it being other times and I could barely hear it, so I cranked it up and kept working.

About ten minutes later I removed the headphones to get a rifill on the joe and I could still hear the music. In fact, I could hear it better now than when I had the headphones in. I then realized that I had plugged the headphones into the mic hole. Hope everyone else enjoyed the music. They must have because no one told me to turn it down!

Pain and a Quotation

2006-09-19T13:46:00.000-06:00

I came across the following quotation in reading a commentary on James. It is by a woman named Hannah More who gave up life among the elite in the late eighteenth century to live a life seeking God and helping to end the slave trade.

"If a surgeon were to put into the hand of a wounded patient the probe or the scapel, how tenderly would he treat himself! How skin-deep would be the examination, how slight the incision! The patient would escape the pain, but the wound might prove fatal. The surgeon therefore wisely uses his instruments himself. He goes deep perhaps, but not deeper than the case demands. The pain may be acute, but the life is perserved.
Thus Him whose hand we are, is too good and loves us too well to trust us with our own surgery. He knows that we will not contradict our own inclinations, that we will not impose on ourselves any voluntary pain, however necessary the infliction, however healthful the effect. God graciously does this for us Himself because otherwise he knows it would never be done."

Here's a Tip

2006-09-14T15:34:00.000-06:00

Have you been in situations where you were ashamed to be a Christian? Not that you were ashamed of Christ or your faith in him, but that you were associated with other Christians. One of my most vivid memories of feeling this was when I was a server at Applebee’s.

One of my fellow servers was having a bad night. She just looked ticked off. Though I feared that she might take my head off, I gathered some courage and asked her what was going on. She pulled $20 out of her apron and said, “Some (insert expletive here) left this as my tip. Christians are such (insert another expletive).”

I took the piece of paper from her and realized it wasn’t actually a $20. It looked like a $20 on the front, but one the back the “gospel” was printed along with some reasons why this was way better than an actual $20. At that moment I was ashamed that somehow I was tied to the guy who had left it.

This is the most glaring example of a Christian leaving a horrible tip, but Christians had a reputation for being horrible tippers. You didn’t want to work the Sunday afternoon shift. All the church people were so demanding and you hardly made anything. From some servers I know this is still how Christians are viewed.

Why are Christians such bad tippers? We are supposed to show mercy and grace. Which I would assume means having patience, even when service is bad. We are supposed to be generous and a light to the world, not greedy. I believe Christians should be the best tippers. It might seem like it’s a little thing, but trust me, it says a lot to the people we’re tipping (or not tipping).

Any thoughts on why Christians are so bad at this?

Competition--Take Tres

2006-09-07T22:22:00.000-06:00

One of the questions I've had on my mind regarding competition is if it inherently puts certain people over others. Is the point of competition to rank people? Students who get the best grades get nice plaques at graduation. Teams that win sporting competitions get trophies. When my friend and tennis nemesis James and I play the winner gets bragging rights for a year since that's how often we get to play.

I think the problem is if competition inherently devalues people based on their inabilities. In fact, the losers of the wealth competition, the poor, are given a position of honor by Jesus. So the losers in the eyes of the world were given extra value by God incarnate. Jesus didn't want to hang out with the winners--in fact he redefined what it meant to win.

The only way I see for competition to really devalue people is if they find their identity in the competition. I just got done watching the Steelers beat the Dolphins and in the post-game interview Nick Saban, the Dolphins coach, looked like his world had just come to an end. Competition was having very negative effects on him, but I think part of the reason for that is his life is largely tied up in the outcome of football games. We are to find our worth in Christ. If we do that I don't think competition needs to be seen as something that assigns value to people.

Bachelors' Weekend

2006-09-01T10:32:00.000-06:00

Michelle and Ayla are going home on the range to Indiana this week, so Isaiah and I are bachelors for the weekend. This is our first time being together, just the two of us, and I'm looking forward to it. We're going to go to the park, the museum, and watch football! Many thanks to my brother and his wife who will be watching him ALL DAY Sunday while I work.

A Rant--But a Deserved One

2006-08-31T16:15:00.000-06:00

WARNING: I’m about to go off.

I am sick of the “Christian” subculture (in reality it is certain manifestations of it which will become clear shortly, and yes, I did put Christian in quotation marks for a reason). I received a flyer in my church mailbox recently promoting a new Christian coffee shop. I think because I work with twenty-somethings I am pegged as wanting to do anything that involves coffee (which is close to true). Here’s the things from the flyer that set me off on this topic.

Number one, because I think it’s sinful, not just something that annoys me, is using Jesus to sell things—coffee in this instance. This shop used both the initials JC and crosses in their logo to promote their coffee. We should be irate that the instrument that was used to inflict torture on our Savior and secure our salvation through his death is being used to sell coffee! That must border on blasphemy and is certainly worse than the moneychangers Jesus kicked out of the temple when he was on earth. This kind of stuff should conjure vomit.

Number two, why do “Christian” stores and products have to be hopelessly cheesy? The catchphrase on this flyer is “The best coffee, pastries, soups and sandwiches this side of heaven.” I don’t know who that’s supposed to attract other than people who are completely desensitized to the “Christian” subculture. Any normal business that used a slogan like that would be out of business in a month. This also serves to further trivialize the cross and the name of Jesus.

Finally, in the letter accompanying the flyer, one of the things they use to market the place is that you can go downtown to a safe place where you can listen to worship music and be with other Christians. This is like creating another zoo and promoting it by saying, “Come to the Christian zoo where you can see all the same animals without those pesky unbelievers!”

I’m so sick of it if you couldn’t tell.

Anger Producers

2006-08-30T08:59:00.000-06:00

One of the reasons some people are opposed to competition is because of the negative emotions and actions it sometimes produces. Things like anger, frustration, hatred, and even violence. However, this mere fact that these things are sometimes produced by competition is not a good reason to see it as sinful.

There are many things that can be good that also produce anger (we’ll stick with one of the outcomes for the sake of simplicity). Marriage, children, work, driving in traffic, and politics (to name a few) have all produced anger in their participants. But if marriage produces anger, the couple may be in need of better conflict resolution skills. If driving in traffic produces anger a person may need to develop patience (or drive when it’s not so busy). The production of anger is not enough to prove any of these things base. This doesn’t serve to prove that competition is good, only that citing the negative things it can produce is not good rationale for condemning it.

So this post leaves us back at square one. Is competition good, bad, or somewhere in between?

A Basketball--Ball or Deadly Weapon?

2006-08-28T10:45:00.000-06:00

In order to uphold my promise to try and be as objective as possible, I thought I'd start out my review of the relative value or inherent evil of competition with some thoughts on a couple of the negative outcomes it often produces.

I played intramural basketball in college (which was when I finally recovered from the great disappointment of being cut in 8th grade, though I deserved it because I faked a sprained ankle to get out of running sprints). This was a good experience for the most part, but there were times when it didn't do wonders for people's relationships. I had my share of less than plesant verbal exchanges and giving a little extra elbow in the post, but let's not talk about me, that might be too convicting.

I remember one instance in particular when a couple guys started getting a little rough with each other and it just kept escalating everytime up and down the court. The culmination of this exercise in stubborn anger one-upsmanship was one of the guys taking the basketball and hurling it at the other guy from about five feet away. He apologized after the game (the guy that threw it) but it didn't do wonders for their relationship.

There is something about competition that can, and often does, lead to anger--and not the righteous kind we Christians like to talk about to let ourselves off the hook when we get mad. In competition it is easy for pride, emotion, and adrenaline to wrap themselves into an anger ball that seeks to destroy the other. This often leads to guilt, embarassment, and the breakdown of relationships--over a game, or a grade, or a person.

So there's negative of competition #1, more to come.

The Sin of Competition?

2006-08-25T08:25:00.000-06:00

Last night at the 24 hour fitness center where I was going pathetically slow on an elliptical machine, the flat screen television in front of me was relaying the closing images of SportsCenter (I choose my machine based on which one is closest to a TV with ESPN). I was assuming there would be a professional baseball game or NFL show on next, but neither appeared. Instead, I was fed the beginning of one of the semifinal games in the Little League World Series. It looked exactly like the coverage of a pro game except that all the players were pint-sized.

This set my mind adrift considering a question I have considered numerous times before: is competition a good thing? In a world of participation awards and not keeping score (though the parents always do even if the kids don't), we still have things like the Little League World Series. It's not just competition--it's competition on steroids. So is it a good or bad thing?

I have to admit I come to this question with a bias. I have played all kinds of sports from the time I was a little kid--and we didn't have participation ribbons. I have always enjoyed competition, though it has led to outbursts of anger or frustration at times. A favorite hobby of my brother and I is making up games (which are always comptetive with us) using anything we have handy. In seminary I even spent five minutes debating someone who said competition was sinful.

So over the next few weeks I'm going to throw in a blog from time to time exploring the nature of competition. Is it beneficial, or is it negative--even sinful? I can't claim that I will be objective, but I will do my best given my biased nature.

Soap Opera Stomach

2006-08-24T10:29:00.000-06:00

Holy crap! It’s been eight days since I last blogged. It’s amazing how quickly the sands of time pass through the hourglass. As the sands of the hourglass, so are the days of our lives. I hate soap operas. I haven’t really watched them much in my life but a few times I’ve been around when other people have them on their television sets and I for some reason known only to Big Bird watched part of one. Here is a metaphorical take on how soap operas make me feel on the inside of myself.

After waking up from a nightmare where the Packers are victorious in six consecutive Super Bowls, I roll out of bed and look at the clock—3:33am. Cool, three threes. I never get to see that because I’m always sleeping (I don’t even realize that I could see it any afternoon because of the distress of my dream and the feeling that something is terribly wrong that I can’t quite put my finger on). I lay back down, but fearful of resuming my dream I am unable to sleep. I toss and turn for a couple hours before finally getting up.

When I make it downstairs Martha Stewart is there and has prepared a breakfast of Mozzarella sticks, refried beans, and peanut butter pancakes. She says, “You’re not leaving until it’s all gone. I’ve been to prison, don’t mess with me muchacho.”

So I eat it all, guaranteeing myself a day of indigestion, which begins to kick in more quickly than I thought it would. On my way to work someone rear-ends me, crumpling the bumper of my sweet Olds Alero. They run away and so I know I’m stuck with the bill.

That’s how soap operas make me feel. Those and the OC.

Trust on the Fast Track

2006-08-16T14:50:00.000-06:00

I’ve always assumed it’s a given that being real with someone and taking that to a deep level takes a great deal of time. You have to have the time to get to know the other person and to learn to trust them—and they with you. You don’t meet a total stranger and tell them your deepest hopes, discouragements, fears, and struggles.

But I’m rethinking that. I bumped into a guy outside Chipotle yesterday and we just started talking about our depravity in great detail (that was meant to be a joke—something that isn’t true but adds humor to what is being read). But I am questioning this because of a relationship I’ve been able to develop with someone at church. I have felt completely free to be myself, with all my blemishes, and this person has done the same with me. I think there’s a couple reasons why this has happened without spending much time getting to know each other.

Trust: Though we didn’t really know each other, we had mutual friends who could establish our trustworthiness for each other (that sentence was convoluted, a nice word). Like if your best friend, Ricky Bobby, says you can trust someone you believe you can. That’s what happened here. Plus, this person has a reputation of being trustworthy in general.

Self-Awareness: We both know we’re messed up and we’re okay with that. Everyone is, even if we like to pretend we’re okay a lot of the time. I’ve never felt like I have to hide because we both understand our messedupness (I made that word up if you can believe that).

So under certain circumstance I think it’s possible to go deep with someone you don’t know very well. It won’t work with just anyone, but I no longer think there has to be an established relationship for this to happen.

Mac Attack

2006-08-15T10:54:00.000-06:00

By posting this next bit of thinking I’m about to transcribe, I’m sure I will begin a ruckus I have no intention of inducing. It’s just that I started up my very elegant HP Pavilion computer (for which I am immensely grateful), logged in, and it started giving me pop-ups. I am bombarded with far more pop-ups by this computer than the internet ever gives me. My computer has to tell me every time it senses a wireless network, that there are constantly updates for my computer, that I need to make backup disks, and that the coffee is ready.

This is just one more reason to throw onto the gigantic pile of reasons why I would prefer a Mac to a PC. I have a Mac at home and it is not nearly so annoying as my HP. I’m not even saying I hate PCs, like I said, I’m thankful for the one I have. To me it’s kind of like a candy bar versus Cheesecake Factory. They’re both okay but one is clearly higher quality and more beautiful than the other.

Let the onslaught begin.

Trash Bag Technology

2006-08-11T14:39:00.000-06:00

I remember back in the day when you had to pull together the top of a trash bag (which at my house was difficult because I waited too long to pull it out and there wasn't much cheap black plastic to work with), rip a cheap twist tie off the sheet of twist ties that came in the box, and twist it tight enough that the plastic would pull down through it.

These days things are much easier. We rock the double roll of trash bags from Costco with the nice red handles that pull and tie. I enjoy them much more than the ones with the twist ties. Why am I writing about trash bags you may ask. Well, apparantly they're very important to our culture so I thought I'd give my take. My reason for thinking that is the following quotation from "A Whole New Mind" by Daniel Pink.

"When we can't store our many things, we just throw them away. As business writer Polly LaBarre notes, 'The United States spends more on trash bags than ninety other countries spend on everything. In other words, the receptacles of our waste cost more than all of the goods consumed by nearly half of the world's nations.'"

Addendum

2006-08-08T15:24:00.001-06:00

In light of Tony's comment on my most recent entry I thought I should clarify that I do like, yea, even love people (considering I am blessed to get paid to work with people). What I am less fond of is phone interaction. I like in person, email, texting, messages, and phone in that order now.

My Recent Conversion

2006-08-08T10:50:00.000-06:00

I have always been a big fan of technological advances—tapes, microwaves, computers—you name it, I like it. With one exception. From the inception of the cell phone feature known as text messaging (texting in slang) I have resisted employing my thumbs to punch out a message to a friend or loved one or just someone else. I just thought it was too impersonal and that it would take more time to type in all the letters than it would to just call a person. I mean, I can make a call while I pop the video tape in my fancy video tape rewinder (is that a sweet invention or what! Now I can rewind one movie while starting the next one, amazing!) but I can’t type a text message while I do it.

But yesterday I was converted. There was no Damascus road experience or anything, it’s just like my brain said to itself, “Pepe (my brain’s name), it’s time you join the 21st century. Like texting now.” And I said okay.

If I’m honest, one of the things I like about it is that I don’t have to talk to anyone. I like to talk to people, but I really don’t like talking on the phone. Texting allows me to get essential info to someone without the risk of actually having to talk to them. The other reason I like it is that I can check a text message in about ten seconds but it takes me a couple minutes to listen to a voice message.

I feel good today. It’s been a good conversion.

Happy Anniverthday to Me

2006-08-05T21:32:00.000-06:00

I usually send people birthday and anniversary greetings in a tardy manner. Now it is time for me to taste some of my own medicine. I realized that I have been blogging for a year (as of July 25). So happy blogging birthday/anniversary to me. And in the previous sentence is the mystery and beauty of the blog contained. It is --both an anniversary and a birthday--an anniverthday or a birthary.

Combining words is fantastic fun, kind of like going swimming in my pool on a warm summer's evening when the water gently refreshes your skin folicles as you enter. I experienced such refreshment this afternoon and then had it handed to me by my bro in a rousing game of beach ball volleyball in the pool. He is gooder than me at it--and yes I meant to say gooder because I can, it's my anniverthday.

Read the Funny

2006-08-04T12:43:00.000-06:00

My brother issued a post on his fantastic blog that made me emit salt-laced water from my eye ducts because I was chuckling so heartily today. Now some (Dan Luebcke) don't find my brother as funny as I, but then I have the advantage of having made his aquaintence when he was zero years old. I believe it is worth reading, you judge for yourself. It is the post called "I was bitten by the fashion bug."

Our Savior IS our Lord

2006-08-04T10:30:00.000-06:00

One of the things I’ve heard my whole life about the Christian life is that Jesus needs to be your Savior and Lord. I understand how this phrase is helpful in explaining two different parts of what it means to follow Christ, but what I no longer get is how Christ can be your Savior without being your Lord. Sometimes people do say, “well, Christ is his Savior, but he needs to make Christ his Lord.” I just don’t think Jesus would have dug on that kind of easy faith.

Take the rich young ruler for instance (how would you like that for your nickname? Luke does say he was a ruler, but you have to imagine with this nickname the girls came flocking), he obviously put some stock in Jesus since he came to him to ask about eternal life. He followed the law and I think he figured Jesus was going to say, “You’re doing a nice job bro. Just keep keepin’ it real.” But Jesus told him to sell everything he had and give it to the poor. There was something that held a higher place in his heart than God—something he wasn’t willing to give up. He couldn’t just get eternal life without living in total devotion and obedience to God.

If we really follow Christ then he is our Savior and Lord. If he’s not both I think he would say we’re just faking it. We have weak, useless, and dead faith.

Feeling Sin

2006-08-01T22:27:00.000-06:00

I don't have to deal with massive brokenness very often. Or maybe I should say I don't get to. I talk about sin and the fallenness of the world when I teach and in my sleep (well, I don't know if I do in my sleep, but I might). But even though I talk about it, and I think in the church we talk about it, it's easy to not really think about or be impacted by it when you don't come in close contact with it.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to talk to and try to help a young girl who has a tremendous amount of brokenness in her life. As I sat and listened to her story, knowing full well that at least some of what she was telling me was a lie, I could see the pain gushing out through her tear filled gaze. I wanted to rescue her. I wanted to take her out of the situations that were causing her pain and leading her down paths that will take her to some bad places.

The reality is that I can't save her. I can help her, but there is only one who can save her. And I don't even mean primarily save her from hell. I mean save her from her fractured relationships, her bad decisions, and her world shattering brokenness. Jesus is the only one who can save her from all that. The best I can to is take action on her behalf and then pray with all my heart for the God who made her and loves her dearly to save her from her circumstances, herself, and the sin that is eroding her life.

It was very difficult to see her pain, but it felt good to actually hurt for someone. To want to cry for someone. To be reminded emotionally that sin is real.

Crisis in the Mideast

2006-07-31T09:39:00.000-06:00

I was going to write something about the current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, but my bro alerted me to this article by Jim Wallis of Sojourners. There is no doubt this is a difficult topic, especially given Evangelical Christianity’s historic unconditional support of Israel, largely due to the residue of dispensationalism. The article is quite balanced and worth a read.

I Don't Have the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy

2006-07-26T16:15:00.000-06:00

If life in Christ is supposed to be a life of joy, why do we live without it so often? I’m sure there are tons of reasons, but as I was sitting here not feeling joyful, I thought of two that have been affecting me lately. (I’m not sure if I should have written effect or affect there, I was supposed to learn that in high school but I wasn’t paying attention.)

The first thing is that my focus can get too narrow. James says that we should consider it a joy when we face trials. Sounds stupid! But the reason he can say that and not be laughed out of the Bible by Paul and Esther is that he is writing it from an eschatological perspective. By that I don’t mean that if we just keep “Left Behind” in mind while we experience trials that we’ll be really happy (in fact, we may become doubly sad because not only will we be experiencing trials, but we’ll be thinking about some trashy fiction too). James said trials were a joy because of what they produced in us, but if all we can see is our current situation and how tough it is it’s going to be hard to have much joy. We have to keep a wider perspective on what God is doing.

Numero dos has to do with not living in the moment. (Yes, I know I just preached a sermon on being present in prayer, but apparently this applies to more than one area.) When I’m at work I don’t have joy because I want to be with my family. When I’m with my family I’m thinking about work and some of the things that I enjoy about that. The point is that I love my family, my job, my friends, and lots of other stuff about my life but too often I live somewhere other than where I am and so I don’t experience the joy of the moment.

We were created for joy. I hope I can learn to experience the joy God has set right in front of me.

Fulfilling Stereotypes

2006-07-26T08:47:00.000-06:00

This is a picture of the new Miss Universe that was on yahoo. When I saw it I just thought it encapsulated the stereotypes of beauty pagents. You wonder if she just got done saying her greatest wish was world peace.

Mom's Thoughts

2006-07-17T10:14:00.000-06:00

My mom emailed this to me today and I thought it was good to think about.

“I also thought about how Paul’s death united this community and the rally call of fighting for freedom. [Paul is a young man who died fighting in Iraq.] I wondered, do we get nearly as excited about the freedom Christ gives us through his fight and death for us. That freedom is not restricted by national boundaries. It seems to me American Christians put more value on their national freedoms than their divine freedoms. Just sharing a few of my thought this morning.”

HOA on Steroids

2006-07-12T10:18:00.000-06:00

There are a lot of things in the world that are worth expending the energy to get excited (positively or negatively) about. Child kidnapping in Uganda, racism, sexism, abuse, the list could go on for a while. But for some reason people like to get worked up about things that aren’t worth the time (maybe at the end you’ll throw this post in that category). Two examples in the last day—

I am now on the HOA board at my town home complex. I did it to try and get to know more people and make a positive influence on our community. We had a meeting last night and there were two guys on the board who disagreed about some things and then as their disagreement got more heated they started to get personal with each other. Without exaggerating, they shouted at each other for about half an hour of the hour and a half we were together. What were they so upset about? Two things—hiring a full-time site manager vs. contracting the work out and whether or not to keep our current management company. You’d think they were arguing about whether or not to send relief aid to Africa.

The second was when I was listening to sports radio this morning. They were talking about how Barry Bonds is probably going to be indicted of perjury for saying he didn’t do steroids. One of the djs started to go off about how the use of steroids in baseball is so horrible and these people are liars and cheaters and record stealers (that is probably all true) and how he has no respect for them. The thing that amazed me was that he got to the point where he was out of control with passion. You could picture the veins popping out of his forehead.

In both situations I think Jesus would be much more concerned with the people involved than the issues at hand. I pray that the Holy Spirit would help us be discerning about what issues are worth our emotional investment.

Overcast is the Soul

2006-07-11T15:47:00.000-06:00

We recently weathered (you’ll appreciate the wordplay later) a nearly cataclysmic event here in Denver that many thought was ushering in the apocalypse. No, John Elway didn’t wear a Vikings jersey in public, we had two and a half whole days of overcast and rainy weather (well, actually the half day was a half day, I wasn’t lying about that. I also hope you appreciate my use of weather at the beginning of this post now. I also hope that you are having a splendid time living, but that doesn’t really have anything to do with this).

Personally I enjoyed the dark and cool change from the usually hot and clear days of Denver. My perfect world = two overcast days a week and five clear and sunny days.

Not everyone agrees with me though. It seems that people in Denver have become so spoiled by the weather that some rain and a few clouds are enough to make them think they live in Kansas. I was in Caribou Coffee shop the day the clouds broke and there was a very loud man right behind me on his cellie.

“How’s the weather there?” he bellowed. “We’ve had five solid days of really dark and gloomy skies and rain here.”

That boys and women is what you call a hyper-bowl (a.k.a. exaggeration). I suppose when you live in Denver your whole life a day is like two days and two days is like a day (yes, that is a biblical reference, slightly modified). So just remember people of Denver, the world will not end when we don’t see the sun for a day, that is the moral of this story.

Unbelievable

2006-07-06T13:59:00.000-06:00

Sometimes the stupidity of studies that scientists do blows my mind. One time I heard of a study funded by the government that measured the amount of methane generated by cow patties to see if it was harmful. I always wondered what they’d do if it was.

I came across another one this week titled, “Mindless Reading Seen as Fundamental.” The gist of it is that if you zone out while you read you won’t have as much comprehension as if you pay attention. No way!! I can’t believe the people who did this actually get paid to be professors. So in honor of all stupid studies here are my top 5 studies I’d like to see done.

5. Is it more difficult to peel potatoes while a person is sleeping than when they are awake?
4. If someone is offered a dill pickle or a $50, which one is taken most often (and I’m talking the big ‘ol dill pickles they have at a skating rink or state fair)?
3. Can God make a person so big he can’t move her?
2. What’s really in the butter at the movie theater?
1. If I was an ant would my name be Buster?

Whack Website

2006-06-28T09:42:00.000-06:00

Perhaps because of the amazing success of My Space, there is now a new “my” website that allows you to post comments about the abilities of college professors and even say whether they’re hot or not. The website is ratemyprofessors.com. But yo, I’ve got a couple problems with said site.

One—you don’t have to put your name on the comments you leave. As far as I could tell you can’t leave your name on it unless you actually type it into the body of your comment. Which tosses this site onto the pile of things in our society that encourage people not to take responsibility for their actions. It encourages people to be cowards who degrade others and don’t ever have to own what they’ve done. Granted, there are good comments on the site too, but even then I think the professors would appreciate receiving encouragement from a person rather than a website.

Two—at least for Christians gossip isn’t something we’re supposed to strive for. This site encourages malicious gossip whether it means to or not.

I think one of the purposes of the site—to let people see what other students thought of teachers so they could pick the best ones—is a good idea, but the anonymity makes is whack.

Nice Quotation

2006-06-26T11:31:00.000-06:00

"If one-tenth of what you believe is true, you ought to be ten times as excited as you are. It's a rare soul who is interested in embracing a faith that doesn't move the person trying to share it."

-Walter Moberly

Spurting

2006-06-26T10:27:00.000-06:00

Once again today I am beginning to tap the keys on my keyboard without a clear notion of what I will write. It seems the inspiration to funnel my thoughts onto my electronic tablet and place them gingerly on the pages of the world-wide-web comes in spurts and currently I am not spurting.

I wonder why it is that life seems to do the same thing—bad things come all at once, I feel connected to God and then I don’t and then I do…, I bowl the three best games of my life all in the same night—things just don’t stay average for a long period of time. And we are hesitant to embrace these spurts (other than the bowling one, that’s tight). Instead we just think we will ride things out until they come back to equilibrium. But when we do that we miss a lot of life because we aren’t living in the moment, we’re anxiously waiting for things to even back out to what we consider normal.

But maybe it’s the spurts that are normal. Maybe the only way to really live life the way we’re intended to live it is to embrace the spurts and live well in them whether they’re good or bad. That reminds me how Paul said he had learned to be content in all circumstances—I think he learned to live in the spurts and not have some ideological view of what normal life was like and then practically pant waiting for it to return. Speaking of which, I got some new pants.

Quiet Communion

2006-06-19T09:23:00.000-06:00

This Sunday our pastor did something may be considered heresy in some circles, but was very cool in my circle. We take communion twice a month and yesterday was one of the two. It was set up where people walked to the front to get their cracker and grape juice, returned to their seat, and then we all took them together. But before the movement began our pastor orated the following:

"While taking the Lord's Supper is solemn in some ways and should be done with revernce, it is also a celebration. It is an affirmation of your committment to Jesus Christ and so as you look around at the others walking up to take communion with you, they have also made this committment. It is communal and so we should participate in it as a community. So today as you come to the front and go back to your seat I want you to talk to each other, enjoy doing this together. I know this can seem awkward because we are usually quiet, but I encourage you to celebrate together today."

So he gave the other instructions and everyone rose, formed lines, and were completely quiet. I said hi and talked to a few people but the deafening silence in the room made me feel wierd about doing it.

It's amazing how stuck to our traditions we can get, and we all do it. We get used to doing things a certain way and it's like we have an invisible forcefield that keeps us from doing them any different. Traditions are good but when the bind us and we start to do things for no reason other than that it's how we've always done it that's silly.

Ayla Isabelle Lee

2006-06-17T22:49:00.000-06:00

Well, I've been away from blogging for about a week, a sin for which Dan will probably never forgive me, but I really do have a good reason.

This past Monday night our second child was born. Her name is Ayla Isabelle Lee and she weighed in at a hefty 4 pounds 11 ounces and was 17 inches long. She is a very sweet girl (and I can say that especially since she's sleeping right now, not like last night when she allowed Michelle and I three hours of sleep).

So I'm back in the saddle and the father of two.

Air Travel

2006-06-08T15:24:00.000-06:00

I have the privilege of doing a few weddings this summer. One of them is in Illinois which means I get to fly on an airplane. Airplanes are a nice concept and good at getting you places fast, but the wonder of them has kind of worn off for me. There is never enough legroom and invariably I sit behind someone who wants to put their seat back and wiggle around a lot. This ends up having the effect of them using my knees for a back massage. I guess I don’t mind, I just think I should get some kind of compensation.

It also cracks me up how people are so antsy to get on the plane. Another story from my most recent adventure in air travel—there was a middle-aged woman with three carry-ons (despite the fact that they announce four times you can only have one and a “personal item”) and as soon as they announced pre-boarding (for small children, people who need extra assistance, and apparently people with three carry-ons) she raced up and stood right next to the ticket taker woman, barely leaving enough room for anyone to get through.

Finally, they moved on to the regular boarding starting with the rows at the back of the plane. As soon as they started the announcement she sprang into position next to ticket taker woman and held out her boarding pass. Evidently she wasn’t in the back rows because she was instructed to step to the side and wait. This flustered her and I was afraid I would have to sit by her. I won’t make you wait in the tension, I didn’t sit by her, I sat by a woman who had headphones on but didn’t know it because she spoke loudly enough for everyone on the plane to hear. Such gems as—“WHAT KIND OF CHIPS DID THEY SAY?” and “THE MAP SAYS WE’RE THERE BUT WE’RE STILL IN THE AIR, IT MUST BE BROKEN?”

I don’t really have a point. I did in reference to the weddings but I got sidetracked. Sorry.

A Spoonfull of Encouragement

2006-06-06T22:31:00.000-06:00

It's amazing how little things can make such a difference in your life. Like power outlets, wedding rings, and toenails (the toenails might not make much of a difference, I really have no idea what they do. But I'm sitting here and I saw my toenails so I just put them in). I was reminded of this today after lunch. Dan and I had a rousing round of lunch at Peking Tokyo (the best Chinese food this side of Santa Fe (the avenue, not the city)) and I had shared with him a few frustrations I was feeling.

Right before he got out he said, "You're doing a good job Trevor. Really, hang in there, you're doing a good job." It was just a couple sentences but it really did help me out. And part of the reason for that is that I know Dan wouldn't say it if he didn't mean it. He doesn't roll like that. I guess that old saying about a spoonfull of encouragement is true after all.

Baptisms

2006-06-05T08:47:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we had a really unique experience in our worship services. A month and a half ago Pastor Nelson preached a sermon on baptism and how important it is for those who claim to follow Christ and he asked people to respond to some questions about their own baptism. From that sermon we had about twenty people who took the step of getting baptized yesterday. Since we have each person give their testimony it took all of both services to baptize everyone.

It really was an amazing experience. Sitting there listening to all these people talk about how God has worked in their lives, seeing them cry, seeing their joy as they came out of the water, it was great.

My favorite quote of the day was a woman who began sharing by saying, "I don't usually say things are awesome because that word's so overused, but this is awesome!"

Praise God for a wonderfully encouraging and rich Sunday morning.

What Reese's and Cigarettes Have In Common

2006-06-01T16:25:00.000-06:00

Today in our staff meeting the official candy supplier of the group, Dori, brought some Reese's peanut butter cups and Skittles (which was especially nice since she's on sabbadical). Everything seemed pretty normal, people picked their fav and got after it. I was housing the Skittles minus the red ones (I hate cherry and even though they're strawberry now I still have a mental block, so I gave them to Jim), when all of the sudden Jim read something that made the room fall to silence.

He had chosen to tear into the Reese's cups and since he had demolished them he had nothing left to do but look at the wrapper. As he was looking at the wrapper he noticed some writing on the inside and it was these words that changed the mood of the room in seconds, it said, "Candy is a treat. Please consume in moderation." That's right kiddies, no more eating Reese's cups until you want to vomit, oh no, now you have to consume them in moderation. Kind of like cigarettes.

But don't get too dejected, the Skittles didn't have a warning.

True Power

2006-05-31T11:23:00.000-06:00

In John 13 Jesus has arrived in Jerusalem and is with his disciples. In verse 3 it says, “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so…” What would you expect it to say next? From everything I’ve learned about the way the world works I would expect it to say that he went out and began to lead people in a revolt against the government, or that he became emperor, or that he made some huge display of his power that brought all people to him.

But that’s not what it says. It says, “…he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.” He goes on to wash his disciples’ feet in an act of servanthood. This may be the best example I know of the radical difference between the power of Jesus and the power of the world. For the world power is controlling things and people. For Jesus it was coming under them as a servant and winning their hearts. That is truly radical power.

Brangelina's His/Her Own Baby Daddy/Momma

2006-05-23T13:49:00.000-06:00

Is Brittany Spears pregnant right now? Is she going to get divorced? In which country will Brangelina have their baby (and who is Brangelina?)? What happened to Bennifer? And why the heck do I know the answers to these questions?!?!?

Before you finish your current thought (which if you're not self-aware is "Trevor, you are so worldly, caught up in American culture and addicted to Access Hollywood.") I would guess that you knew the answers too, so I'm judging you as much as you're judging me right now (Well, probably not quite as much since you're more judgmental than I am).

Why are we so enamoured with celebrity in our country. Why do we care whether Brittany is pregnant or not? I can't remember the last time I saw a pregnant woman on the street and thought, "I can't believe she's pregnant and I wonder who the father is and I wonder if she'll sell the contract for the first picture of the baby (which I heard Brangelina sold for $6.2 million) and I wonder if she'll have lyposuction after." Yet we ask all these questions about celebrities.

I think this is something in American culture that can be considered idolatry a lot of the time. We look at celebrities like they are gods, thus people make a living stalking them to shoot them (with cameras). It's just wierd and crazy wierd. That's all I'm saying.

Untucked Orator

2006-05-22T16:35:00.000-06:00

Dan "the man" Luebcke preached this week, and not just to his kids like he does at home, he preached in big people church. First, I have to say he did a great job, and I'm not just saying that because he bought me lunch last week, he really did kick it.

He said a lot of good things but one that really stuck out was an insight he had about how blessed we are to live as Christians at this time in world history. He was talking about how we might have the opportunity to sit next to Elijah in heaven and how tight that would be. And then he said the following (muy loose paraphrase):

"But did you ever think that as excited as we'd be to hang out with Elijah, he'll be even more excited to hang out with us? Because we have communication from God written down. We have the Word of God. He'll say, 'what was it like to have the Bible everyday? Did you just want to read it all the time? What was it like to know the Messiah had come? What was it like to know that God had acted in this amazing way on your behalf?'"

Kind of puts it in perspective for me. We are so blessed to know the crucified and risen Lord and to have the Scriptures to teach and direct us. I most certainly take that for granted too often.

By the way, the only thing I'd mark Dan down for was that his shirt was untucked. I was so distracted I'm surprised I heard what I just wrote!

Peeps (not the marshmallow bunnies)

2006-05-19T07:17:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I was talking with a friend of mine who also works Southern Gables (the amazing man known as Tim Vincent) about what gives us life in ministry, what keeps you going. In the course of that conversation I realized that what really keeps me going is the interaction I have with people where it is clear that they are really pursuing God and that He is transforming their lives, and people who don't yet have a realtionship with Jesus.

Sometimes I can get kind of caught up in how many people are showing up to what and feel like that is what keeps me going, but good or bad what I get from that tends to pass pretty quickly. But I can relate back numerous interactions I've had with people in the last couple months that have pumped me up like Hans and Franz.

My Trip to Grad-E-ation

2006-05-14T08:01:00.000-06:00

Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of my graduation from seminary, so of course I went to the seminary graduation where I assumed they would be commemorating the anniversary, but no one seemed to remember. They moved the ceremony to a new location this year, somewhere in Nebraska. I just know I took Lincoln for many miles and then turned left.

The mall, I mean church, where they had it this year was equipped with about eight plasma screen TVs and had a bookstore/cafe called "Elements." My brother wisely pointed out that this church must charge people for the bread and grape juice for communion and elements would be where you make that purchase.

Overall I felt like the ceremony went quickly which is always much appreciated. No one mooned the crowd or anything. Perhaps the funniest thing was that there was one woman who recieved the certificate in spiritual formation and she got a lot of clapping. Here was her day...

"Would the candidate for the certificate in spiritual direction please rise." (Applause)
"Shera Ragedy Ann Munez (not her real name)" (Applause)
She walks across the stage and then the whole place is silent watching her as she walks around the bottom section back to her seat, she finally arrives. (Applesauce, I mean applause)

Other highlights were my uncle graduating from the DMin program, Dan calling me from about thirty seats away a couple seconds before the amen of the last prayer, and wondering how many millions that building sucked up.

Also, congrats to Jen Fouts and Mark Hallock on getting pretty much every award.

Viva Los Ankles!

2006-05-11T21:35:00.000-06:00

I think it's really important for us to remember history. If we don't know where we've been then we can't know where we're headed. With that in mind, I would like to present an abbreviated history of my ankles.

1977: My ankles were formed in the womb. At this point neither of them was sprained (which seems obvious but will seem less obvious by the end of this post).

1978-1992: My young and flexible ankles were fairly unscathed.

1993: My first memory of a sprained ankle. It was a fairly common cause, landing on someone's foot playing basketball, I would have saved much embarassment it that were always the reason for the twisting of the joints above my feet.

1995: In a tennis tournament in Warsaw, Indiana I ran back to get to a lob and stepped on the ill-placed ledge at the back of the court. I'm not sure who the genius was who thought it would be a great idea to cut the back of the court off to make and ankle spraining trap.

1995: Second most embarassing sprained ankle ever...doing "the Gumby" at a youth retreat and landing flush on the side of my foot. This also goes down as the worst ever. I had to keep my ankle above my body for 24 hours because it hurt to bad to put it down.

Tonight: Most embarassing sprained ankle ever. I was standing in the kitchen talking to my bro and sprained it. I don't know how it happened, it just happened okay!

The good news is that through somewhere around 23 sprained ankles (not an exaggeration) I have never used crutches. I ain't no sissy!

The Joy of Brooms

2006-05-11T08:19:00.000-06:00

I went to pick Isaiah up from the babysitter's yesterday. I asked how he did and she said he had a great day, most of which consisted of carrying the broom around, going in and out of the playhouse, and pushing thier little table around the kitchen. This is par for the course for Isaiah: poles, in and out of anything, and pushing things (even the next door neighbor kid, Isaiah hasn't learned that pushing isn't a good way to show affection yet (mostly if he loves you he pushes and slaps you, we're working on it)).

What gets me is that he can spend entire days doing these things and have the greatest day ever. He is constantly (well almost) laughing, smiling, and being enthralled with life. He has so much joy. I think that might be part of the reason that Jesus said we couldn't enter the kingdom of heaven unless we were like little kids. He isn't constantly worrying about where he has to be next or what he has to get done. He is present in every moment of his life.

The Bible says that our lives are basically a fog that is there one minute and gone the next. I wonder how many moments of life we miss because we're preoccupied with what's coming next or all the stress we have. We don't notice what God is doing now, the wonderful things he's trying to show us, the hurting person he'd like us to be with, or the fact that he is present. If we were more like kids I think we'd have an easier time seeing all these things, because we'd be present. We'd take joy in the moment.

Folding T.D. Waterhouse's Laundry

2006-05-08T09:45:00.000-06:00

I was watching SportsCenter this morning while folding laundry (which I think is one of my natural abilities, so if you want me to fold yours I'll do it for $93 an hour) and a commercial came on for the investment firm T.D. Waterhouse. I remember about six months ago they had ads on all the time which were a not-so-veiled slam on E-Trade where you do it all yourself. Their basic point was that doing it on your own without any guidance wasn't very likely to find you success. It seemed like they meant it (at least as much as Gatorade means it when they tell you that Kevin Garnett was born out of a basketball in the middle of a basketball court while it was raining Gatorade).

So the commercial I saw today kind of made me disappointed in them. Today's commercial was really just introducing their version of E-Trade. Do it yourself. You don't need any help. Independance is what this country was built on (I like how they appealed to patriotism to have you give them your money). Apparantly people were still using E-Trade and not T.D. so they decided they'd cater to what people wanted.

Sometimes I am tempted to be like T.D. To put pragmatic concerns over convictions. That's dumb.

My New Grinder

2006-05-04T07:58:00.000-06:00

I finally got a coffee grinder for my office yesterday. I like coffee, so the grinder is helpful. The amazing model I purchased happens to be a Toastmaster 1119. I know, you can tell right away it's awesome. I was standing in the aisle looking at all the different grinders and then something caught my eye that made my decision. On the box of the 1119 it says, "Great for flavored coffees." That sold me. I mean, I don't even really like flavored coffees, but I'd like to have one that can handle a Vanilla Hazlenut if I ever have the urge to partake of such a blend.

I'm sure all the other coffee grinders which they could handle flavored coffees. But the beans are just so different from regular coffee that they can't. Hey, that's what you get for $9.99!

Making Out with Strangers

2006-04-26T15:10:00.000-06:00

Over the years I've had a number of different experiences with small groups. I find it interesting that in most places in life people who are thrown together randomly are given a task to do. A swim team. McDonald's employees. Bus riders. These are people who are forced to be together but are given something to do when they get together (Okay, so the bus riders don't so much have a task as they just hang out, but there aren't really any expectations). For most small groups put together by churches the task is being each other's best friends and closest confidants. (It's kind of like having some random guy at the mall just pick two people out of the crowd and say, "ready, set, make out!" (Although in our culture I suppose some people wouldn't mind that, but I think the point still stands)).

So I guess it's no wonder that from what I've experienced and what I've heard they have such a low success rate. Regular human relationships just don't function that way. At the same time, for those who are pursuing following Jesus it is important to have others in our lives who challenge and encourage us. People who we know are there for us and want to see us continue on the path to becoming who we were created to be. I think the key for me as a leader is encouraging these kind of relationships without specifying who they have to be with or exactly what they should look like.

Having said all that, I would like to give props to the small group of women from The Relcamation who have given me my faith back in small groups. They are constantly there for each other, have meaningful discussions, or sometimes not, like being together, and are growing in all areas because they are together. Now if we could just bottle whatever they've got going and pass it around we'd be all set!

Getting Worse With Purpose

2006-04-21T09:57:00.000-06:00

I was watching an interview with Tiger Woods a couple weeks ago and he said something that really struck me. The interviewer talked about how he won the Masters (the biggest golf tournament of the year) and right after that he changed his swing. Why would he do that. Tiger looked right at him and said, "Sometimes you have to get worse to get better."

Why change when something is working? Why take a step back? The truth is that when things are going okay the easiest thing is to coast, to keep doing what you've been doing. But that's not always the best thing. Tiger realized that there is always room for improvement and that to get to a better place sometimes you have to do things that seem foolish at the time.

This Sunday The Reclamation is making some big changes. Changes that have caused our group to lose momentum over the last month. And while things were going okay before, we did not have a structure that allowed us to pursue our best in terms of community, service, worship, spiritual growth, and outreach. So we had to change our swing. We've gotten worse, with purpose. The purpose of eventually becoming a group that will model the values of the Kingdom of God better.

Good Friday

2006-04-14T08:37:00.000-06:00

Today is Good Friday.

For those who followed Jesus, their hopes died with him. And as we enter into this day and experience it again, our hopes die with him today. There is no true salvation. The kingdom of God will not come. We have invested our hearts with him and he is gone. There is nothing to live for and no hope in death either. There is only despair, hurt, anguish, and pain. Everything we have believed and hoped for is dead.

Today is Good Friday.

The Selfishness Song

2006-04-12T22:33:00.000-06:00

(To the tune of the worship song, "It's All About You)

It's all about me, (insert your name)
And I am so awesome
I really love me some me,
It's not about you
As if I should do things your way.
I alone am sweet,
and I surrender to my ways.

These are the kinds of things that come to me when I stay up past 10 now.

Bad bad internet

2006-04-11T08:52:00.000-06:00

I really hate the internet here at the church. I just wrote an entire post, then it said that it couldn't load the page and I lost everything. Everything do you hear me!?!? What will I do now? Who can I turn to? I might as well give up and become a professional golfer.

Riding an Alligator in the Porcupine Forest

2006-04-11T08:35:00.000-06:00

I got the chance to get Isaiah up and dressed this morning which was great. As he was laying on the changing table I was thinking about the shirt I was putting on him. While he was lost in some mental land where getting dressed is similar to having your toenails ripped out (evidenced by the fact that he was screaming at the top of his lungs the whole time I was dressing him) I was fighting a strong case of bewilderment. The source of my confusion came from what was printed on his shirt. It had a big picture of a smiling porcupine (who incidentally had his spikes sticking out, not laying down, so I guess he was very happy that the next person to touch him would be in extreme pain (great I'm teaching my kid that inflicting pain is great fun, pretty soon he'll be throwing rocks at the neighbors)) and the words "Porcupine Forest." Is this some great national park I've never heard of? I mean that's too random to just come from nowhere.

But then I started thinking about some of his other clothes. For instance, there's the shirt that says, "Little Boys are all About Sports." And this shirt is size 12 months. Now, Isaiah may be way behind all the other 12 month olds in the world, but at this point I would say his life is more about trying not to fall over when he walks, trying to whine enough that we'll take him outside, and pulling things out of cupboards than it is about sports.

Then there's my personal favorite. A shirt that has a car with a family in it and it says, "What's Behind the Car?" You lift up the car and there's a big smiling alligator. Of course! What else would be behind a happy family in a car but an alligator!

So here's to the amazing people who live in the porcupine forest where inflicting pain is fun, alligators run alongside cars smiling, and 12 months olds can dunk.

Trusty Pocket Pen to the Rescue

2006-04-10T08:41:00.000-06:00

I pretty much never take notes during sermons. There are two likely reasons why this is the case. First, I was subjected to mandatory note taking when I was younger. Sometimes I can hardly think about those days without breaking down into a pitiful pile of tears and babbling. My pastor at the church I grew up in did the whole "fill in the blanks" style insert in the bulliten each week. I mostly used it as a game to see how many I could get right, I didn't really use it to pay attention. Second, I took tons of notes in college and seminary and I think I've looked back at them a grand total of two times since I left those classes. So all that writing didn't do me too much good other than to remember what to study for the test.

But this past Sunday our pastor said something so good that I actually pulled out a piece of paper and my trusty pocket pen and wrote down a whole sentence. It really is pretty simple, but it's the kind of thing I can use to test my life. He said, "I've come to believe more and more that the measure of who you trust is how much you're praying." He used the examples of Jesus and Peter during Jesus' arrest and trial. Jesus spent the night before his arrest praying, gaining strength from the Father. Peter, on the other hand, continually fell asleep after vowing that he would never forsake Jesus even if he had to die with him. You know how the rest of the story goes.

At this rate I will have a good 12 sentences of notes from sermons by the time I die!

C-egg-ebrate

2006-04-09T08:17:00.000-06:00

We now stand one week away from the pastel colored Christian holiday known as Easter and the eggs have already started flowing (I say that because we had a big egg hunt at church yesterday, it's not really pertinent to what I'm writing). I realized last night while I was laying in bed that for most of my life Easter hasn't been that big of a deal to me. For some reason it's always seemed like just another day with a little extra fanfare. Maybe it's because I don't like eggs, or because the Easter bunny never made sense to me, or because I really dislike pastels, I don't know.

The thing is, Christmas was and is a time I really look forward to, for the religious significance, time with family, and traditions. And I even look forward to Good Friday because it has been a deep and meaningful time for me since junior high. The sacrifice made by Jesus on our behalf is painful to remember, but the emotions of it are deep and moving. Then we come to Easter and I just think, "I'm so glad that Jesus rose from the dead," and I am, but there's not the same emotion or excitement as with Christmas or Good Friday.

Easter really should be the most exciting day of the year who believe that we are saved and made right with God because of the resurrection of Christ. So I wonder if we're just not all that good at celebrating. We do well with rememberance and meaning in the somber, but maybe we don't do as well with meaning in the joyous. Or maybe it's just me.

Man-diva Disappointment

2006-04-07T09:08:00.000-06:00

This week Mandisa was booted off American Idol. Even if you hate the show, listen to her because she was amazing. So she was voted off while a guy named Bucky who sings about as well as Kevin Federline with a cowboy hat and Ace who can't really sing but can give you this glossy "I just smoked weed" staredown at the end of each song are still in. I thought of some comparisons for what it's like to have these two still in and Mandisa (her nickname was Man-diva (which my brother pointed out is kind of an unfortunate nickname, I'm sure the intention was nice but who wants to be called Man-diva?)) out.

It's like:

Gilbert Godfrey winning best actor at the Oscars for his performance in "I Know My Voice is Wierd, Deal with it: Reloaded."

Spilling orange juice on a napkin and then having it framed and hung in the Luve (I know I don't know how to spell that, but I'm not French so give me a break!).

Going to a U2 concert only to realize they're only singing three songs because they're just opening for 98 Degrees.

The Prayer of Jabez being used as a theology textbook at a seminary.

And my favorite, it's like totally stupid dude!

Sweet Repetition (that's sarcasm)

2006-04-07T08:58:00.000-06:00

As much as I love American Idol I equally hate the results show. If you've never watched it, on Tuesday all the people sing and then on Wednesday they have a half hour show to reveal who the big loser is that gets kicked off the show.

Normally I am able to distract Michelle enough that she doesn't even realize we're not watching the results until they're over and then I just get online and see who lost. But for whatever reason this Wednesday none of my masterful distraction techniques worked and there we were watching Ryan Seacrest say

"These are your bottom three America, and one of the will be going home. That's right, one, two, three, people who got the lowest number of votes and one of them will not be with us next week. One of the people standing before you will have their dream end tonight." And I wish I were exaggerating right now, but if you've seen it you can back me up on this. He continues, "Paris, you are safe. Now we're down to the bottom two America (which makes me wonder why I'm watching this show at all since apparantly it's aimed at an audience that isn't sure what 3-1 equals). One of these two will be going home (Oh, for real, I thought that you were kidding the last nineteen times you said that)."

Okay, you get the point.

A Gift of Weeds and Dirt

2006-04-05T10:38:00.000-06:00

The last week or so Isaiah has started to want to share everything and give things to people. One afternoon I walked over to Ryan and Erika's (my bro and sis in law) with him and we were hanging out on their deck. I think Isaiah spent about fifteen minutes walking over to their big flower pots, pulling out some dried flowers, weeds, or dirt and then walking it over to Erika and repeating. He had a huge smile on his face the whole time.

Then I was feeding him a couple days ago and he got into this thing where he would take a drink of his milk, then pass me his cup and I'd pretend to take a drink and give it back to him. He thought that was about the greatest thing ever.

I get a picture of two things from this stuff. First, I want to regain that joy of giving and sharing. For me so often it is a chore and grudging when I share or give. I want to have fun like he does at making others happy.

Second, I know we're all messed up and sinful from the time we're born, but Isaiah's reminded me that there's still some residue of our being created and being "good." There are times he throws tantrums or is selfish, but there's also great joy for him in not being selfish.

Insurance, Sminsurance (Or Something Like That)

2006-03-31T21:29:00.000-07:00

I think insurance companies are unlike any other entity in the world. Kind of like Little Richard or Michael Jackson, only at least those two don't try to mess you over any chance they get. Basically the way insurance companies work is they sell you some piece of paper that means nothing except if your house goes up in flames or your car gets totaled they'll reimburse you for some of it after you call them at least ten times and talk to ten different people who all say they can help you and then don't. Then, when they finally do help you, they jack up the rates because you actually used your service.

Imagine paying Comcast $90 a month or whatever it is for cable and then one day, after watching SportsCenter five times in a row, even though it's the same thing every time but you just can't pull yourself away, you get a call from a Comcast rep.

"Hello, sir. I see you actually used your cable. Since you decided to turn it on your rates will now be $110 a month. You might want to think twice about doing something stupid like that again."

And with insurance it's not like you do something to try and use it. "Hmm, maybe I'll break something in my house today so I can make an insurance claim. I just want to see how much my rates will go up." It's the only thing I can think of in the world where you buy something and do your best to never use it. This is why I'm convinced there will be no insurance on the new earth and that the serpent is responsible for the fact that we have it in the first place.

Isaiah's One!

2006-03-24T11:25:00.000-07:00

At 3:30pm today my son, Isaiah, will turn 1! We have had a wonderful year with him and it's hard to believe the first one is over. Look out adolescence! So in honor of his first birthday I thought I'd list my three favorite things about him and our first year together.

3. His affinity for poles. Seriously, he has all kinds of colorful flashy toys, but give him a windshiled wiper or a broom and he forgets all about the toys. And despite his compartive non-interest in anything non-pole-like, we continue to buy him toys.

2. His love of learning. Isaiah is the kind of kid who is constantly moving and gets ticked off if he's not around the action for one minute. From the time he learned to crawl he has been getting into everything he can reach. He is willing to try almost anything and wants to learn how everything works. It is truly a joy to watch him explore and learn about his world.

1. What he has taught me about my Father. In the book, "To Own a Dragon," by Donald Miller, he talks about how a parent child relationship is the only one where there is love from the moment the two meet, not based on anything, and completely unconditional. I am blessed to have the experience of loving my son in that way. Calling my God Father has taken on new meaning for me as I realize what it means to love someone just because they are your child, no matter what they do. I do not love Isaiah less when he continually gets into things he shouldn't or more when he just sits on my lap and lets me hug him. He is always my son and I always love him tremedously. And since God is my Father, my relationship with Isaiah has taught me that God must take great pleasure when I just stop and sit with him. I know what it's like to have a child who is always on the go, but when he stops and chooses to be with me, doing nothing, it is one of the greatest joys I know.

I am so thankful and proud to be Isaiah's dad. He is an amazing gift from God and I look forward to what he will teach me, how he will make me laugh, and how our relationship will grow during his second year.

Preaching Re-Imagined

2006-03-23T08:26:00.000-07:00

In his first book he reimagined spiritual formation. Now in his second book, he takes on preaching. The trilogy will be completed this Fall when he releases his masterpiece, "Communion Cups Re-Filled."

Obviously the last one probably isn't going to happen, but I just finished the second one (which is a real book) and thought I'd throw in my two cents. This is one of those books where I find myself going, "This is really good" [turn the page] "what the heck is he talking about?" [turn the page] "This is really good" [repeat ad nausium]. I think he hits on the importance of thinking about why we do what we do and challenged me to be willing to change if something can be done in a more effective way. Certainly preaching has been a one-way speech for quite some time now and it would do us well to think about if that is the way people learn best or not.

On the other hand, as most books like this do, he comes across saying "My way is the only good way and if you do it the old way then you're a doo-doo head." I know some people who learn well from speeches and I have benefitted greatly from both class lectures and sermons in the past. So here's my favorite and least favorite quotation from the book.

Fav: "But the history of heresy shows it's most often the abuse of power--not an openness of power--that creates environments ripe with heresy."

Not fav: Really most of the things I didn't like consisted of longer sections where he contradicted himself or didn't really make sense and I know no one wants to read a page-long quotation, so I'll spare you.

Sometimes Rambling Leads to the Reclamation of a Beautiful Word

2006-03-20T14:17:00.000-07:00

I am sitting at my desk trying to think what to write about. I am not inspired nor have I observed some interesting anomoly of culture about which to spew (that cannot be how you spell that, but to redeem myself I will spell antidisestablismentarianism (that's it, don't wait for the spelling because I just spelled it)). So if you haven't quit reading already you may be asking why my fingers are tickling the plastic of my keyboard to begin with. The main reason is that a very good friend of mine goads me if I go to long without writing, and he has proved himself worthy of being a goader in this area because he blogs about fourteen times a day. I have a strong desire to please Mr. Luebcke in the frequency of my electronic journaling/rambling.

But now that I mention it, why is goad such an underused word? Not only does it sound mysterious and inticing, but it also makes a sweet acrostic.

Gargantuan
Old
Ankle biting
Dude

Also, Goader would be a wonderful moniker for a rapper. I imagine he would win best song at the Oscars just like Three Six Mofia.

Due to the magnificence of the word goad and its various forms I am glad to be writing today thanks to the goading of a dear friend. Everyone get out there and goad someone!

P.S. The picture above is of Mr. Billy Goad. If you don't believe me google it.

Where to do What

2006-03-15T10:57:00.000-07:00

WARNING: The following post contains deconstruction of the Evanglical sub-culture not meant to be derogatory, only funny. (I do have a point, but my exaggerations are only done for fun.)

Have you ever wondered why churches have all kinds of places that no one else in the world has. Places with names that sound so nice and logical to those of us who have been in the church like Dan Luebcke has red hair (by which I mean all of life). I'd like to highlight a few of my favorite places that I know I can reference in the world at large and have the confidence that no one will know what I'm talking about.

The Welcome Center: Probably my favorite because of it's propensity to have coffee (and the coffee has improved in most Welcome Centers over the last ten years which wasn't hard since it used to be one part coffee grounds to 6,000 parts water), a plethora of beautiful brochures to paruse like the racks of tourist attractions in a Las Vegas motel, and smiley people with large plastic name badges that say something like "My name is Vera and I'm so glad you're here I nearly wet myself." This is the place to go if you would like to welcome or be welcomed. As the name suggests other places are not for welcoming. Can you imagine someone coming back from a business trip and saying, "I stayed in the Marriott. You should see their Welcome Center!"

The Worship Center: These days normally a very large room with short gray carpet. Some churches have taken to using these areas for so many things during the week that they have had to change the name to "Multipurpose Center" because a Worship Center can only be worshipped in (which does not involve playing games, having Bible studies, or leading the youth in a rousing round of "stick a bunch of LifeSavers on your face). When you enter this room, all welcoming must cease and worshipping commense and vice versa when exiting (assuming the Welcome Center is connected to the Worship Center).

The Prayer Room: I'm assuming by now that you're catching on and understand by now that this is the place where prayer happens. The only confusing thing about this is that prayer is also practiced in other rooms of the church, including the Worship Center, so perhaps this room should be renamed to "The place where the serious prayers go because it's quiet and you should pray for a long time here." That might be too long for the hall sign.

In our culture, and in the Church, we tend to struggle with compartmentalization. The problem is far greater than what we name our buildings and rooms, but everything communicates. I know the intention of names like these is to help people understand the purpose of the large spaces we construct, and that can be very helpful. It might be good for us to at least consider the dark side of the names which could constrain certain parts of church life to certain places. May we become a people who welcome, worship, and pray in all places and at all times.

A Field Guide to Evangelicals and Their Habitat

2006-03-15T10:53:00.000-07:00

I ordered this book today. It's from the creator of Lark News, a satirical paper like The Onion. The cover kind of reminds me of the movie Saved, a good movie. I'll give my four cents on it once I get it.

Ch__ch

2006-03-09T15:31:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wonder what good all our advertising does (and by us I mean local churches in particular). My favorite, and by favorite I mean least favorite, is the pithy sayings churches put on their old school billboards in front of the church. Things like, "ch__ch, what's missing?" or "everyone is welcome." Well that's nice, but does anyone who doesn't go to that church care? At best maybe it strikes some sentimental chord with someone who went to a church that had cheezy sayings when they were growing up.

Even more advanced modes of advertising on TV or radio seem kind of pointless to me. I heard one on the radio recently promoting a concert at a church and the last line was, "This will be a life-changing night." That's like I Can't Believe It's Not Butter saying in their advertising, "It will melt in your mouth but not in your hand." It's just promising more than can be delivered, which I imagine is exactly what people expect from the church, lots of promises that don't come true.

I had a sweet idea, how about we start advertising by being the church Jesus prayed we would be. "I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me."

Can I Buy a Friend at Wal-Mart?

2006-03-07T12:43:00.000-07:00

Is quality or speed of availability more valued in our society? McDonald's or Applebee's? (I know, maybe neither, but the fact that we could say neither and then list a hundred other options is a whole other commentary on our culture.) Drive or walk? The newspaper or the internet? Email or snail mail? You get the point. I've realized recently that the fragmentation and desire for speed and ease of our society is something I don't think about very often. It's just how things are and I take it for granted.

Another aspect of our culture that gets kicked around a lot is the desire to connect with others (especially for young people). Our divorce-happy, transient, Wal-Mart going, chat room (or My Space) oriented world is producing people who want to be connected to others in a way that is permanent. But do we? Do you?

I know that I am thankful for the meaningful connections I have to other people, and when I think about being a part of a group that desires to become like Christ together, to love each other, and to function as a body, I get excited. The Biblical picture of community is beautiful and of course I would want that. But I think I want it without work. Without risk. Without patience, endurance, and death to myself. I want real connection like I want Wal-Mart to get a drive through so I can pick up a DVD without even getting out of my car. I want community like a Big Mac, pre-made under a heating lamp and ready to go into the box.

My point is this. The connection and community that this generation longs for will take patience, honesty, endurance, selflessness, giving, forgiveness, vision, hope, and trust. None of that is easy and true community will not come easy. I think that's why the Bible says that people will know we're Christians by the way we love each other. If we could ever pull off committed community in a world of impersonal fragmentation, people would see a difference. We just can't do it on our own.

Thank You, Electronically

2006-03-06T13:59:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I don't like etiquette (not to mention the fact that I'm going to have to use spell check to even come close to spelling it right). I'd like to talk to the woman or man who made up all these insane rules about what you have to do to be proper but I think that person is probably holed up in their house sitting by themselves wearing a white suit and white gloves.

The thing that got me thinking about this is thank you notes. The way those work is someone gives you something, you say thank you, and then you go and write down that you're thankful too just in case you're a verbal liar and a script truther. And while I'm whining about this, I have to admit that the reason I started thinking about this in the first place is that I'm horrible at thank you notes. We have Christmas and then my birthday in January and I am a horrible loser who didn't send out the piece of paper that would affirm my true state of thanks.

So if you're one of those people who believes that I am some kind of carnivorous barbarian because of the lack of written thanks you have received from me, first accept my apology, then print this off, paste it in a card and address it to yourself from me. I have no thank you note skills, only bowstaff skills.

My Life's in Bippus

2006-03-03T10:09:00.000-07:00

Although I believe it's true, it's always blown my mind (insert Eve and Gwen Stefani song) that Christians are supposed to die to themselves. In other words, we are supposed to think about our wives, husbands, kids, friends, enemies, the lady you just passed on the street, and even Bono, but not so much about ourselves. Sure, this can be taken overboard to where people push themselves until they have a nervous breakdown, but even then I think that's often about how much I have to do because I'm so important.

In reading Colossians today (and I have to admit that I was reading it this morning because I hadn't read the Bible other than to teach in so long that the Holy Spirit was literally making my heart long for God (which is sweet that the HS did that, but not sweet that it got to that point)) I came across a verse I have never really heard before and gave me added perspective on this whole area of selfishness. "For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." Colossians 3:3-4

It's like I gave my life to Jesus to take with him to somewhere really far away, like Bippus (and Indiana referece to the town that went big-time when I was in high school and got a flashing light at their intersection), so if I trust Jesus to bring it back then I don't need to worry about my life, it's with him. So if I'm not worrying about my life (so worry is a poor word choice as I am currently residing in Bibleland, but you get the point) then I might as well focus on others. My life's okay, it's with Jesus, and someday soon he's coming back with it from Bippus and we'll enjoy life together. But for now there are thousands of people who need to be loved, served, and smiled at who I haven't given the time of day, or hug for that matter, so I guess I should get to it. And for all of us who's lives are in Bippus, I guess we all should get to it.

Water for Our Toilets

2006-03-02T14:18:00.000-07:00

The old H2O is kind of a funny thing. Most of my life I don't even think about it. I drink it, mix it with Gatorade powder and then drink that, wash my car with it, let it wash me, and even make it swirl around and down the porcelain throne. And all the while I seldom to never stop to think about the wonders of the relationship between two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. It really is beautiful.

I guess if I was in many villages in Africa I would be more cognizant of the wonder of the water. At the Catalyst conference I went to a while back we saw a video about how many people have to walk miles to get water, and that water is polluted with all kind of crap. Then, when they get it back to their village they use it to bathe, to wash their clothes, and then to cook and to drink. There are literally thousands of people who are sick and even dying because their five gallon jars are filled with filthy polluted water.

What got me thinking about all of this to begin with was when I was using the restroom facilities at Starbucks, looked at the top of the urinal (yes, I know this is too much information right now) and it said 1.2 gallons per flush. 1.2 gallons per flush! The amount of clean water (well, to begin with) that I flush down the toilet each time would be enough to make a sick person healthy. I know I can't ship water to Africa and boycotting the bathroom won't really help the situation, but it just seems like there's something wrong with the world when I flush multiple times a day what would keep others in the world alive. Praise God that the world will be set right someday and everyone will have the H2O they need.

Tony Dungy's Speech

2006-03-02T14:12:00.000-07:00

This is a speech Tony Dungy, coach of the Indianapolis Colts, gave at a Super Bowl breakfast. It's kind of long but I think it's very powerful.

They were there for breakfast, and they were there to cheer New York Jets running back Curtis Martin.
And it was Martin who received the Athletes in Action Bart Starr Award Saturday morning, but the hundreds who gathered in fourth-floor ballroom at the Marriott Renaissance in Detroit, Mich., on the morning before Super Bowl XL were clearly touched by the featured speaker. That speaker was Colts Head Coach Tony Dungy. Two hours into the breakfast, emcee Brent Jones introduced Dungy, who was welcomed with a lengthy standing ovation. Dungy thanked the crowd, shared an anecdote about Martin, then told the crowd he was going to speak for about 15 minutes.

"It's great to be here," Dungy told the crowd, then adding with a laugh, "I
just wish I wasn't here in this capacity so many times of being just that
close to being in the game and just being an invited speaker.

"My goal is to have our team here one day and have a couple of tables with
all of our guys here. Because we have a special group of young men, a great
group of Christian guys. It'd be wonderful to have them here so you could see
their hearts and what they're all about.

"It hasn't quite happened yet, but we're still hoping one day it will."
He told them he was going to talk about lessons he had learned from his
three sons. The crowd fell silent. Then Dungy spoke.
And although this was a breakfast - and although at many such events
speakers speak over the clinking of glasses and murmurs from semi-interested

listeners - for most of the 15 minutes the room was silent except for
Dungy's voice.

He spoke of his middle son, Eric, who he said shares his competitiveness and
who is focused on sports "to where it's almost a problem." He spoke of his
youngest son, Jordan, who has a rare congenital condition which causes him
not to feel pain.

"He feels things, but he doesn't get the sensation of pain," Dungy said.
The lessons learned from Jordan, Tony Dungy said, are many.

"That sounds like it's good at the beginning, but I promise you it's not,"
Dungy said. "We've learned a lot about pain in the last five years we've had
Jordan. We've learned some hurts are really necessary for kids. Pain is
necessary for kids to find out the difference between what's good and what's
harmful."

Jordan, Dungy said, loves cookies.

"Cookies are good," Dungy said, "but in Jordan's mind, if they're good out
on the plate, they're even better in the oven. He will go right in the oven
when my wife's not looking, reach in, take the rack out, take the pan out,
burn his hands and eat the cookies and burn his tongue and never feel it. He
doesn't know that's bad for him."

Jordan, Dungy said, "has no fear of anything, so we constantly have to watch him."

The lesson learned, Dungy said, is simple.

"You get the question all the time, 'Why does the Lord allow pain in your
life? Why do bad things happen to good people? If God is a God of love, why
does he allow these hurtful things to happen?''' Dungy said. "We've learned
that a lot of times because of that pain, that little temporary pain, you learn
what's harmful. You learn to fear the right things.

"Pain sometimes lets us know we have a condition that needs to be healed.
Pain inside sometimes lets us know that spiritually we're not quite right
and we need to be healed and that God will send that healing agent right to the
spot. "Sometimes, pain is the only way that will turn us as kids back to the Father."

Finally, he spoke of James.

James Dungy, Tony Dungy's oldest son, died three days before Christmas. As
he did while him eloquently and steadily, speaking of lessons learned and of the
positives taken from experience.

"It was tough, and it was very, very painful, but as painful as it was,
there were some good things that came out of it," Dungy said.
Dungy spoke at the funeral of regretting not hugging James the last time he
saw him, on Thanksgiving of last year.

"I met a guy the next day after the funeral," Dungy said. "He said, 'I was
there. I heard you talking. I took off work today. I called my son. I told him
I was taking him to the movies. We're going to spend some time and go to
dinner.' That was a real, real blessing to me."

Dungy said he has gotten many letters since James' death relaying similar
messages.

"People heard what I said and said, 'Hey, you brought me a little closer to
my son,' or, 'You brought me a little closer to my daughter,''' Dungy said.
"That is a tremendous blessing."

Dungy also said some of James' organs were donated through donors programs.
"We got a letter back two weeks ago that two people had received his
corneas, and now they can see,'' Dungy said. "That's been a tremendous
blessing."

Dungy also said he received a letter from a girl from the family's church in
Tampa. She had known James for many years, Dungy said. She went to the
funeral because she knew James.

"When I saw what happened at funeral, and your family and the celebration
and how it was handled, that was the first time I realized there had to be a
God," Dungy said the girl wrote. "I accepted Christ into my life and my
life's been different since that day."

Added Dungy, "That was an awesome blessing, so all of those things kind of
made me realize what God's love is all about."

Dungy also said he was asked often how he was able to return to the Colts so
quickly after James' death. James died on December 22, and Dungy returned to
the team one week later.

Dungy said the answer was simple. "People asked me, 'How did you recover so quickly?"''
Dungy said. "I'm not totally recovered. I don't know that I ever will be. It's still very, very
painful, but I was able to come back because of something one of my good
Christian friends said to me after the funeral.

"He said, 'You know James accepted Christ into his heart, so you know he's
in heaven, right?' I said, 'Right, I know that.' He said, 'So, with all you
know about heaven, if you had the power to bring him back now, would you?'

When I thought about it, I said, 'No, I wouldn't. I would not want him back with
what I know about heaven.'

"That's what helped me through the grieving process. Because of Christ's
spirit in me, I had that confidence that James is there, at peace with the
Lord, and I have the peace of mind in the midst of something that's very, very
painful.

"That's my prayer today, that everyone in this room would know the same
thing."

My Morning In High School

2006-02-28T12:56:00.000-07:00

I was looking at Dan's blog today and realized that he has been writing about his lesson each week, and since I taught for him this week (he had some excuse about his wife having a baby or something (I'm sure she wasn't still in labor Sunday, so I don't know what his problem is)) I thought I'd chime in with what I studied last week.

First I'd have to say that the high schoolers and junior highers (who weren't on retreat) were great. I think they have paid more attention to me than I did, or else they're great fakers, either way, shout out to them.

This week I talked about Haman, Mordecai, and God, the three characters in Esther 3. Haman was a straight up hard core villan, the like of Saron or whatever the big eye's name is in Lord of the Rings or Voldemort in Harry Potter, only Haman was real. He had a massive ego, he was a racist (which is why the text identifies him as the Agagite (go look that one up!)), he had a mad crazy temper, and he was incredibly deceptive. But the key for Haman was that he had power. In Chapter 3 Xerxes gives him his ring and tells him to do with the Jews whatever he wants (which is to kill them and annihilate them and destroy them, he doesn't really leave any doubt). So this terribly evil person has all the power he could want.

Mordecai seems like he might be the hero in the story, but when you look closer at him you find he also had a huge ego, was very selfish, and was a hypocrite. He wasn't really a bad guy, but not exactly hero material either.

So then we talked about how we all have a little Haman and Mordecai in us. The things that make us different are really just the extent to which we have these negative characteristics in our lives and that most of us don't have much power. But if we are following Christ then the Holy Spirit lives in us and is slowly changing those ugly pieces of us.

I ended giving a few not so subtle clues as to who the real protagonist is in the story. This is already long so I won't go into all of them, I'll just highlight one. Haman is an Amalekite. At the end of the story where the fellas hold Moses' arms up so that God will give Israel victory in Exodus 17, Moses says, "For hands were lifted up to the throne of the LORD. The LORD will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation."

Cue the epic music and the wide lens camera. The story just became an epic with a great villan and an awesome Protagonist.

I Hope I'm Wrong

2006-02-28T12:39:00.000-07:00

So I haven't had anything to write about for a while (I know, you probably think that's been true since I started, but pretend to be nice!) and thus I haven't written. I was looking on the internet today and found something to write about.

If you know me very well you know that I have liked Erwin McManus for a long time. His book, "An Unstoppable Force" was one of the books that really had a big impact on me when I was in seminary. His talk, probably more than the book, on the barbarian way out of civilization is probably the only talk I've listened to more than four times. He is like a motivational speaker who really cares about the Kingdom of God more than anything else and doesn't soft sell the difficulty of following Christ. He really is just an amazing guy.

Then this afternoon I went to Mosaic's website (the church he's lead pastor of) to see about listening to a recent sermon of his and noticed a link to connect to "our lead pastor's new website." So I clicked on it out of curiosity and looking through it scares me. There have been too many Christian leaders who have started out great, obtained a ginormous head, and then either started to just tell people what their itching ears want to hear or do something to royally screw up their ministry. When you go to the website it has the categories: the leader, the speaker, the artist, and the author. I started wondering if I was on the website of some up and coming superhero who would be gracing the big screen in a matter of months before moving on to Saturday morning cartoons.

I realize that we are all proud and we all self-promote to some degree, but I'd hope that's something we're trying to keep in check, not something we indulge. Only God knows where Erwin's heart is in this, and I greatly respect this guy, I just hope the fame doesn't overtake his passion for God's kingdom.

blink

2006-02-13T14:23:00.000-07:00

I think it's worth reading, though the content can be summed up pretty easily. Basically the point is that our brain processes things quickly in ways that are as accurate or even more accurate than if we sit and think through the same things logically. For instance, in a basketball game, Brett (my friend the basketball coach) knows which plays to call or has ideas on how to switch things up that he has to come up with in seconds. He can't call a 30 minute timeout to think it all through and come up with a strategy. It is also essential that he has spent a lot of time studying basketball, studying the other team, and knowing what works for his team. So his judgments are not based on nothing, but because of his preparation his snap decisions will probably be just as good as the decisions he'd make if he had time to sit down and think things through.

The rest of the book deals with times when our snap decisions are dangerous and other things that impact our ability to make good judgments.

Rajin Christian

2006-02-10T10:30:00.000-07:00

To add to the archives of "why the heck people don't like Christians" I submit this video. It is from the show "Trading Spouses" and is video of when one of the wives comes home from her swap. Among my favorite parts are casting out camera people in the name of Jesus and the line, "If you're dark-sided get out of my house, if you believe in Jesus you can stay." The video is here.

Eyeliner and Beer

2006-02-10T07:59:00.000-07:00

So I'm way behind on writing about this, but there was a commercial from the Super Bowl that I thought was pretty hilarious. And it was funny without trying to be. It was during the second half, when you figure all the good commercials are done (which is usually true) and a commercial came on that looked like about any of the regular beer commercials you usually see (not the funny ones like the guy who wears a helmet to listen to his girlfriend for five minutes or stay two minutes past five on a Friday, those are funny!). You know the ones: guy sitting on a bar stool looking longingly at a glass of beer like it's the love of his life that he's finally found after years of searching, then cut to a group of four very attractive people at a table in a restaurant looking like they couldn't be any happier if they had just been given a free trip to Disneyland and a Mickey Mouse keychain (and of course their happiness is based on the fact that they are in the presence of beer), then cut to a slow-mo shot of beer coming out of the tap into a glass so you can see all the bubbles and the whole time this epic music is playing like you're watching Lord of the Beer.

So I wasn't even paying that close of attention because it seemed like a boring beer commercial, and then it got to the end and it wasn't for a beer company, it was just for beer. There is actually someone out there who loves beer so much that they are willing to pay 4.2 billion dollars (or whatever a Super Bowl commercial spot is going for now) just to advertise beer! Can you imagine a commercial for pizza, or eyeliner. Not a brand, just a commercial where random women who have had eyelash extensions put on eyeliner while batting their eyes like they're sexy, and then at the end it says, "Eyeliner, it's awesome!" But apparently that's what they're doing with beer now.

Violent Forgiveness

2006-02-06T12:16:00.000-07:00

It has been really sad to see the spread of violence that has happened as a result of some cartoons portraying the Islamic prophet Mohammed as a militant were released in a Dutch newspaper (or Dutch cartoons in a Norwegian paper, not quite sure). (That sentence is kind of ironic.) Many Muslims were outraged because Mohammed is not supposed to be represented at all, let alone in ways that poke fun at him. They are upset because people have been insensitive, even openly hostile toward the holist man of their faith. For some the response has been to make those responsible pay however they can, like burning down embassies (though to be fair, the number who have gone to actual violence is small in comparison to the Muslim population of the world or even the countries where this is happening). For others it is just to speak out against it and condemn those who were a part of it.

There was another great religious leader who had people poke fun at him, misunderstand him, and even kill him in his own time. His response to this was to love the ones that did and pray for their forgiveness. Jesus wanted his followers to do the same thing. I don't know nearly enough about Islam to know how their faith would instruct them to respond to something like this, but I hope that as people do the same things to Jesus (and they do, you don't have to look too hard to find horribly offensive portrayals of Christ) his followers will respond to those who do these things with love and forgiveness instead of protests and violence.

P.S. My intent here is really not to paint Muslims as violent bad people. As I said earlier, I don't know how Islam would tell them to respond and "Christians" have perpetrated their fair share of violence and hate against those who disagreed with them. I just know that Jesus would have us respond with love when people degrade him.

Super Sentimental

2006-02-06T12:06:00.000-07:00

I don't want to take too much time writing about football, it hurts too much knowing it's over now, but after the Super Bowl I just had to blow one gasket. I know it was Jerome Bettis' last game, that the Steelers were the sweet, happy story of the playoffs, and that Bill Cowher finally got a chapionship, but holy crap was the officiating bad. It's not that the Seahawks would have won the game or that every call was bad, but it just seems a little wierd that the calls that went against Seattle changed the game and the ones against Pittsburgh didn't ever really matter.

I'm not saying there's some conspiracy (though that would be sweet because maybe then they'd make the movie Conspiracy Theory 2) just that the officials got a little sentimental and let it affect their judgment. I'm happy for Jerome, I just wish officials wouldn't have such a big impact on a good game.

The Happiest Time of the Year

2006-01-19T09:37:00.000-07:00

Approximately two weeks, three days, eleven hours, and four mintues from now I will enter a state of melancholy. You may be wondering, "Trevor, are you a prophet?" And I would quickly tell you that I am not, though I have read things written by prophets in the Bible. No, the thing that will signal a lowering of my happy estate is the end of the football season. Somehow the NBA just doesn't fill the void.

So we were going to have a Super Bowl party for our young adult group at church to mark the end of the happiest time of the year. Then as I was driving yesterday I was struck with the thought that I was perpetuating something I'm less than a fan of, which is Christians spending all their time with other Christians. The Super Bowl is something many people in the world love (or at least they want to watch the commercials) and is therefore a great chance to hang out with neighbors and friends who not Christians. So we're abandoning the church party for a people party. Go Broncos!

Worth the Time

2006-01-19T09:24:00.000-07:00

I was doing some blog reading this morning and came across an entry called "So Trent Dialed the Right Number..." on the demerging blog. The audio file is kind of long, but it is a great example of how God can work in anything!

Sooper

2006-01-17T21:20:00.000-07:00

I was walking out of our local King Soopers today (It's amazing to me how I thought that name was so whack when I moved here and now it just rolls out of my brain without a second thought. Seriously, can you imagine the business meeting where the grocery store gurus were pooling their powers to come up with a name for their new store? "I think we should say something about how our store is super." "Yeah, we could call it like, Super Duper." "That is sweet Hank, but what if we were the King of all the Super stuff? That would be even more sweet." "You're right Darla, it would be nice to be the king of super stuff. And we should spell super sooper so that people elongate the ooo sound when they say it." I digress.) when I happened to notice a car with one of those signs stuck on it advertising a home business. It said, "Want to lose weight now (to which I thought, yes please)? Call me." Then it had a phone number. I happened to glance at the person sitting in the car, and it was a woman who looked to be about as overweight as I am. Now I'm not crackin on her, that would be the pot calling the kettle black (although our pots are silver, but I think the phrase refers to the pots from the olden days that they made stew and potions in), but an overweight person advertising their ability to help me lose weight doesn't really inspire a lot of confidence. Maybe that's why they still have their advertising on their car.

For those of us who follow Jesus we claim that it is a life-transforming thing. We claim that Jesus helps us through tough times and that our perspective changes and that we have purpose and meaning in life. Yet there are so many Christians who are depressed, fearful, ugly (and I don't mean that physically), rude, hateful, racist, enslaved to addictions, purposeless, and generally no different than before their "transformational" experience. (Not to go too deep into it, but I don't want to come off as saying you can't legitimately be depressed or afraid, being a Christian doesn't always mean being happy, but I think we have peace with God so we should have something in us despite going through these types of difficulties.) In the words of an author I like, "We're not smoking what we're selling." We're a bunch of overweight people claiming we can help others lose weight. No wonder so few are buying.

Holding onto Your Mint Condition

2006-01-13T08:34:00.000-07:00

Last night I had the pleasure of hanging out with a couple guys from church at Caribou Coffee. I say pleasure not so much because of the people but because of the warm, cabin-like feel of this particular coffee joint and because I had the good fortune to try a little drink they call "Mint Condition." Yes, the name is very cheezy (I meant to use a "z" because I never get to and I like them) but one drink of this sweet nectar and you wouldn't care if they called it "A Cup of Pure Bliss."

The three of us were having a good time discussing how we're all sissies and don't like scary movies and whether or not ghosts are real and what form they take. How we got there I have no idea, but I do know that if you go to Caribou right now and fork over some jack they'll lay a nice Mint Condition on you with a smile!

So anyway, one of the guys (let's just call him ... Al Stewart) brought up the fact that he's a procrastinator. I can definately identify with this. My mantra in college was if I was done with a paper more than an hour before it was due then I had to sit in time out. Well Al had called about paying his tuition for the spring semester and they informed him that he had been dropped from all his classes because he had waited so long to pay. He promply infomed the person he was talking to that they had dropped significantly on his "top 100 friends list" and then asked if they could get him back in his classes. He said he was able to get back into all of them and Zac and I released the breath we had been holding throughout the meandering course of the story.

"Maybe if you hadn't gotten back in your classes you would have learned your lesson about procrastinating," I remarked haughtily.
"Oh, I learned that lesson last semester," Al responded.

So I wrote all this because I thought his comment was pretty funny but also true of how we all live at least some of the time. We learn lessons from life, books, teachers, or our moms and even though we understand them and think they're true we never really apply them to our lives. And a lesson learned and not applied is about as good as a Mint Condition that slips from your grasp and disperses itself on the carpet.