If I Could Be the Coolest

Who do you look up to?

When I was a kid I wanted to be like Mike… “If I could be like Mike…”

I remember I always wanted his shoes. For years my mom would never buy me the Jordan’s, and thankfully so, but one year I got those bad boys.

I remember I was talking about those shoes to the youth one night as we were talking about how things of this earth perish. I asked them if they knew where those Jordan’s were today? Someone said, “The dump!” to which I replied, “No… a glass case.” I kept a serious face for a moment before informing them that they were right.

I really wanted to be like Michael Jordan.

I just went up to Kentucky and had the privilege of hanging out with my buddy who coaches some 7th grade guys in basketball.

We got to the gym a little early, and he was asking me if I wanted to mess with the kids and tell them that I was a former NCAA basketball player.

When the guys arrived I was shooting around, and Coach Ben told them that I went to Texas Tech, which is true, and he never told them that I played basketball, but they jumped to that conclusion.

One of the kids immediately began to talk trash and yelled out that Texas Tech got lucky in one of its recent upsets.

I walked over to him, debating whether or not to engage in some trash talk with a 7th grader. I decided to hold back all the words I wanted to say in defense of my team, and I just said, “This is luck…” Then I threw the ball behind my head towards the goal from the three point line. To everyone’s surprise the ball hit perfectly in the square on the backboard and then swished through the net. I was shocked, but I kept a straight face.

The kids went crazy, and kept asking me to do it again. I was trying not to burst out laughing, and Coach Ben looked his team straight in the eyes, and came to my defense, “You don’t do that twice…”

Kids are always looking for someone to look up to. Hopefully it is their parents, or a quality role model. I would have loved for these 7th graders to look up to me, but what would be the good in that? I do not live there, and they would never see me. They might have a short lived impression that I am cool because of my lucky shot, but the person they are looking up to is Coach Ben. You can see it in the way they follow him as their coach, and he is a great Christian man for them to look up to.

In the same way that kids have people they aspire to be like, we should have people we aspire to be like.

It is important in the Christian faith that we have someone tangible to look to and model our lives after. Paul set this example to the churches he invested in, and we should strive to live our lives in such a way that we could say the same. Ultimately our goal is to be like Christ, so the hope is that the things we display, that we desire other people to model, are the qualities of Christ that are shining through in us.

Who are you aspiring to be like? And I am not talking about the Sunday school answer, “Jesus?” I am talking about someone that you can tangibly see living life, and model after them.

Another nugget to chew on is who is aspiring to be like you? Think about the people who look up to you and think about the way you live your life. Whether you realize it or not, someone is looking to be like you, so what kind of example are you setting?

What a Beautiful Truth

Today I was chatting with one of my good friends from Texas Tech who also went to seminary with me. We have a ton of memories with each other, and he is a friend I can truly say I’ve lived life with.

I started off a g-chat conversation with retelling one of our favorite friendship memories… all in quotes. I would quote my line, then I’d quote his line, and this continued until the story was told. There was no elaboration to the situation, just great one liners that would only capture the moment if you had actually been in it.

Just the thought of that night brings a huge smile to my face, and pondering the play by play results in great laughter.

When he had read through my series of quotes his response was immediately, “hahahahahahahaha.”

To that I asked him, “Do you think when we get to heaven God will say, ‘What in the WORLD were you guys thinking?!’”

Then he said something amazing… “I think he’ll say, ‘You have no idea how much grace I’ve given you.’”

I literally was put back in my chair when I read that… it just hit me. I mean, I went from the sitting halfway off your chair, kind of hunched over your computer with your fingers ready to type back a response position, to the sit completely back in your chair where your heals lift up from pushing with your toes and make you recline position… thinking, “Wow! I love the gospel.”

Last night at youth I talked about our hearts and how we can actually harden them towards God. Then one of the ways to keep our hearts from being hardened was to continue to preach to ourselves.

What kind of stuff should we preach to ourselves? Well, we can start with knowing that God has given us so much grace!

“You have no idea how much grace I’ve given you…”

Think about that, and let that truth result in a greater love for God and His Word… “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound…”

If You're Not First You're Last

Put a group of guys in the woods for the day and two things will happen… when it’s light outside something will be built, and when it’s dark outside something will catch fire. We love to build things and take things apart. When I was a kid I loved working on my bike, building ramps, and making forts out in the woods.

We also love to fix things, and if something is broke and needs to be fixed, with the right tools and enough knowledge we can fix it.

I think this is the way we view prayer. The world is broke and needs to be fixed, so we view prayer as a tool and a means of fixing it.

We have to get out of this mindset! Prayer is not a tool that works, but it is part of a relationship with the almighty creator of the universe.

Christianity affirms that God is all powerful and all knowing, and when people begin to think through this they eventually ask the question, “Well, if God already knows and is going to do what he is going to do then why pray?” This is a legitimate question, but it is routed in an understanding of prayer as a tool.

God wants us to make petitions to him and ask him for things, but he wants us to do so in recognition that he is the one who provides all… he provides our meals, our clothes, and the air we breathe. He wants us to understand our dependency on him and he wants our faith to increase in him knowing that he will always provide what we truly need.

Our prayer life increases our trust in God, and our trust in God allows us to grow deeper in our relationship with him. In other words, it is not mechanical, it is relational.

A college student had a great question, and I think anyone outside of the box on Christianity would have something very similar. He asked why Christians argue so much and cause hurt and scarring with one another. Then he asked why human’s will (which he determined was the cause of arguing and fighting) overpowered their faith in God… shouldn’t faith in God keep us together and not tear us apart?

I basically wrote him a book for a response, and I’ll save you the wordiness, but it all starts with our pride. I explained how our beliefs come from a source, and those sources can be read into conservatively or liberally, and when something is left to interpretation people will have differing opinions on what it means. Everyone has an opinion, and everyone thinks theirs is right… if they didn’t they would get a new one. We argue because we think we're right.

Arguments are inevitable, but the way we come out on the back end reveals the power (or lack thereof) of our faith in God.

Faith isn’t something that you have or don’t have.

We all have faith, and it is continually increasing or decreasing. If you eat at McDonalds you have faith that the food was prepared right, because you really have no clue what happened behind those closed doors… unless you awkwardly try to peak through the little lamp warmer thing that they feed the food through. But the more you eat there the more your faith increases that your food will be prepared right.

Faith in God isn’t that simple, unlike food, we can’t see or touch God. But our faith in him is either increasing or decreasing all the time. My fear is that we visit fast food restraunts more than we truly visit with God.

When our faith is weak we find ourselves being divisive after arguments and unable to keep the body of Christ together. When our faith is strong we find ourselves reconciling after arguments and keeping our focus on the big picture of bringing God glory in all things.

So how do we increase our faith in God?

We pray… not as a tool, but as a relationship. It is the same thing as McDonalds… the more you go and don’t get food poisoned the more your faith increases in the way they prepare their food.
Well, the more you pray to God the more your faith increases that he will take care of you.

The adverse effect of this is that the less you pray the less dependent you will feel on God. Then the more independent you feel from God the more dependent you fell in yourself. Then the more you are dependent in yourself the more you fill yourself with pride. Then the more you fill yourself with pride the more you will find yourself entangled in sin.

Your pride robs God of his glory.

Why pray if god already knows? Because your lack of prayer will result in God being robbed of his glory, and that IS NOT something you want to stand before him and be held accountable for.
God has invited us into a relationship with himself, and prayer is a means to grow more intimate in that relationship.

Never stop praying.

I pray that our faith will continue to increase and that we will keep our focus on God’s glory.

Summer 2009

It’s been a while.

The summer months were crazy, and I was not able to keep up a blog. God has taught me a ton, and I wish I could capture it all in few enough words to have people actually read it, so here is my best to capture the highlights.

First, summer camp was amazing. Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters is the most amazing summer camp any youth could attend.

Second, Senior Trip to San Antonio was a blast. I am pretty sure all of them are sold on things being bigger and better in Texas… except for the beaches.

Third, I really felt convicted to help out with areas of ministry outside of my church, especially helping those in need who are in poverty right on our front porch in the Atlanta area. I had a chance to work with a kid named Justin Johnson who was a homeless teen. I bent over backwards for this kid calling shelters, employers, case workers, and anything in between. I found his sister in Waco, TX and had her trying to help him too. Then right when everything seemed to be going right, he went off and stole our children minister’s computer. In his stealing spree he took a few other people’s stuff and got himself locked up because he was already on probation.

I have never felt stabbed in the back like this before. His sister (at first) told me not to help him, other people around me told me to be careful, and this whole thing was just draining… then he goes off and steals from us. He proved everyone right, and added fuel to everyone’s arguments on why these people are hopeless.

However, in the mist of this I was given the most simple piece of wisdom and encouragement by Wayne Morgan. He said, “Jeff, you stick out your hand… sometimes you pull people up, sometimes they pull you down, sometimes you just have to let go… whatever happens, the important thing is that you stick out your hand.”

This situation has left an impression on my heart, and that simple saying will be passed on to a lot of people. Thanks Wayne.

Fourth, Guatemala was a ride. I think a lot of people would go down there and want to change their way of life, but their way of life isn’t broken… it works just fine for them. They do not even know that they are in poverty. However, many of their relationships are broken. There are a lot of fatherless homes, and there are a lot of people who have been burned by the church in the past and have hate towards Christ because of it.

We had the chance to share the good news of Jesus Christ with a lot of people down there, and about 30 people ended up responding to the call.

In Santiago we told the story of David and Goliath, and when we tried to transition to Christ most of the kids turned and started walking away... But one kid stood tall and proud and said, “In the name of Jesus there is power!” This kid was probably in 2nd grade, and his proclaiming this truth brought warmth to my soul. After the translator explained what he said I got down on one knee to be closer to his level, and I asked him to tell everyone what he just told me. I really hope and pray that he raises up as a leader for Christ in his community.

After the rest of the team left for the states, Chad Hambrick and myself stayed back to speak at a youth leadership conference. It was supposed to be in Guatemala City. It wasn’t, it was “3” to 5 hours away in the Central American Jungle where it felt like you were walking through a hot tub that had a deep end. We were supposed to ride down there in a car. We didn’t, we rode in an old school bus on the hump where the tire is. We were supposed to have our own room. We didn’t, we slept in a room fit for about 25 students, but it had about 50 kids crammed in there. This part of the trip was clouded by miscommunication, but I’m sure there was some important lesson that I forgot to learn.

Now summer has gone, and the fall semester is here. I look forward to what God has in store for me, and for First Baptist Covington. I have high hopes with the Student Ministry, and I really think we can rock this county for Christ (does that sound like cheesy youth minister talk? I think it’s wearing on me).

Stay tuned, and I’ll keep the blog more up to date for the months to come.

Busy Lives and Folded Arms

One night I was playing basketball up at the YMCA and met a guy who used to be in ministry. He actually was a youth minister before he got burned by his church, but now he is a social worker in the heart of Atlanta.

After we had finished playing we got to talking about his history with the church and his current work. He had actually spent time working with a seminary and doing guest lectures.

He told me that one time he brought a homeless friend and posted him outside of the classroom, and then divided his class into two seperate roomes. So you have two classrooms next to each other, both full of seminary students, and a homeless man sitting on the wall between the rooms.

Before he split the class he gave them instructions. They would work together on writing a sermon on the Good Samaritan. He gave each group a certain amount of time to create the sermon and told them that it should be easy because this story was so well known. After the allotted time was up, each class was to send half of their group to the other group where they would compare each other’s sermons.

This might be a little confusing, so let’s say there were 20 people to start with. 10 people went to one classroom, and 10 went to the other. Once each group finished the sermon 5 from the first room went to the second room, and 5 from the second room went to the first room.

As the time wound down each group hurried to put the final touches on their masterpiece. When the time was up they hurried to the other classroom to preach a message that would capture the historical value of the parable, but at the same time bring relevant application to this day and age.

They basically told the story from the Bible and then plugged in modern day figures to capture the weight of what was going on. You could have a Baptist preacher passing a man with a blowout in the side of the road hurrying to get to church, and then the head deacon doing the same thing, but the person who stops to help is a gay man who happens to also be the town atheist, but he is the one who shows compassion.

After each group presented their sermon they pulled the class back together in the first room and the teacher (the man I played basketball with) gave his take on the story… except instead of plugging in a pastor or head deacon passing someone with a blowout, he plugged in seminary students passing a homeless man in need to preach their sermons to one another. Wow! Can you imagine the weight of the story sinking down on the seminary students as his homeless friend stepped foot in the classroom?

Where is our heart for the needy? Where is our heart for the homeless, the sick, the diseased, the widows, the orphans, and the lost?

Here’s where I am struggling… it is easy to put some money in a love offering for a benevolence offering, it’s easy to go down town and buy some homeless guys a meal, or even give them some spare change to keep them from following you, it’s easy to help out at a soup kitchen twice a year… but what about really investing in their lives?

I recently had a crazy encounter with a transvestite (that’s another story), but it led me to go downtown and hangout with some homeless people. I got a lot of people asking me for money, some being very honest about wanting marijuana, and others just wanting a bottle of water, then everything in between; but the crazy thing is just about all of them either initiated or asked to be hugged. This really messed my heart up… what a simple and easy thing to provide… but what a great need… a need to feel cared about.

A week after hanging with the homeless a homeless teenager showed up at the door of my church. We had just finished up our early service, I was heading to teach Sunday School, and someone pulled me aside and said that someone needed to help this guy.

The temptation was to pass him off to someone else… because, hey, I’ve got to go teach; but at the instant I was reminded of the Good Samaritan and the story of the seminary students.

I talked to him for a second and could tell he was strung out on something… which I later found out that he was strung out on something and hung over. I could tell that people were uncomfortable around him… and to be honest, he was very uncomfortable to be around. He was making a lot of fidgety movements, and he kept opening his eyes extremely wide and moving his neck out like a turtle (hard to explain).

I decided that I didn’t care what people would think, and I took him to the college and career Sunday School class. I told him that if he hung out there they could instruct him how to get to the service afterwards, and if he came to the service that I would take him out for lunch.

We went to lunch and I found out a lot about his life story… man, so many of us have it so easy… and the whole time we were talking I had thoughts going through my head… “Should I let him crash at my house? Will he steal any of my stuff? What if he goes crazy and kills my dog? Should I get him a hotel room? Should I try to contact his mom or sister and let them know where he is? Do they honestly not care about him?”

After a good while of talking I led into the gospel. I wanted to make sure that even if he didn’t feel loved by those around him that he could have true and complete love from God. He wasn’t like most homeless guys I’ve met that know all the answers already, and tell you that they’re covered by the blood… he was clueless to the gospel and told me that he was an atheist until that morning, and now he didn’t know what to think.

We eventually parted ways, but sure enough the next morning he showed up to our church again wanting to see me. He asked if he could fix stuff around the church, but we have a protocol for that, and plus I couldn’t leave someone I didn’t really know unsupervised, and I was too busy catching up on work to babysit him. I told him that he should use the time he had to walk around town and try to find a job, but he didn’t want to walk in the heat. I felt bad, but I ended up telling him that there was nothing I could do for him at that moment, and I encouraged him one last time to go try to find a job and he ended up leaving the church visibly frustrated at us.

What do we do with this? How do we help people? Can we truly help from afar, or are we going to have to get our hands dirty and truly love these people who are hard to love? What did Christ model for us? Are we easy for God to love?

The answers seem so clear cut and easy… but it’s not easy… it’s really hard to come through when you’re face to face with the situation. I’ve said it before, but I think Solomon hit the nail on the head. The temptation is to busy ourselves with work and other things to the point where we don’t think about the needy, or we just fold our arms and act as if the task is too big to actually put a dent in what needs to be accomplished… either way, we end up doing nothing.

I don’t know how this will all unfold in my life. I wish I could say that I am selling all I have and going to live homeless and give every paycheck to helping the needy, but that seems far from my heart right now. Sure, it has this almost radical romantic appeal to it, but the reality of that coming to fruition seems so far off.

Maybe I’ll never see the guy again, or maybe he will show up again tonight or tomorrow or in a few days… but whether I see him again or not doesn’t matter because we’ll always have the poor and needy, and I will be faced with a very similar situation sooner than later, and when I do, how will I handle it?

Pray for the needy. Pray for my heart. Pray for First Baptist and how we can help. Pray for the universal church and how WE can help. Pray that we would model the life Christ modeled for us, and that we wouldn’t harden our hearts towards obedience. When you pray “Thy Kingdom come,” don’t let it be vain repetition, but search your heart and seek out ways that you can bring what you are praying for into part.

I fear the day when I stand side by side with the once lame and needy and know that I did nothing.

I Hope Ants Don't Become Giants

Have you ever kicked over and ant pile? What is the cruelest thing you have ever done to an ant? When I was a kid we used to stick these awesome firecrackers called “M80s” into the ant hill and blow them up.

The M80s would litterally leave craters in the ground. Then ants would find themselves in the trees trying to figure out what in the world just happened. Then they would hurry down to get back to work. It always seemed so sad that they would get right back to working on rebuilding their home.

Doesn’t that seem ridiculous? Look at the life of an ant… they just do the same routine thing every day. A kid blows up their hill… and they rebuild it.

But think about our lives… what if someone was on the outside looking in? We live in boxes, then we get into moving boxes and go to bigger boxes, then we get back in our moving boxes and return to our smaller boxes… it seems so routine and sad doesn’t it?

I’ve always been told by older and more wise people that life will just keep getting busier and busier, and that I should cherish today, but I have the hardest time trying to wrap my head around a busier schedule until I reach another season of life… then I find myself envying the simple days that I should have cherished.

The other day I got into the best argument of my life. It was intense, back and forth, and consisted of numerous “one-ups.” Then when all was said and done, I stinkin lost!

I was walking by the playground and a bunch of kids saw me. They yelled my name from afar, and then came sprinting to the fence line. It really made me feel good inside that these kids were pumped to see me.

I took a couple of their noses, a girl took my nose and ate it, then they tried to get me involved in a game of tag… but everything took a turn when one of the kids made a derogatory comment… “Your nose is pork!” I didn’t even know what that meant, but judging by the other kids’ reaction I could tell it was an insult! I quickly responded by saying that his ear was pork, still not knowing what that meant.

This went back and forth as we named different body parts and said they were pork. By this time all the kids had left their areas of play and joined the crowd of bystanders. What started out as a group of kids excited to see me turned into a group of kids pulling against me in hopes that their peer would trump me in this intense game of pork insults.

I had to venture back to kindergarten to get in a proper mindset for this galactic battle. I remembered one time a kid told another kid that his head was so big that it would explode and it trumped all other insults. So I thought I would put an end to this argument once and for all… “Well, your head is pork!”

BOOM! It was done! All the kids hung their heads in shame knowing that they had been defeated as a whole.

Every kid hung their head in shame except for one… the kid dealing the insults. His head remained high and proud, gleaming with confidence. As the other kids began to slowly walk back to the play ground, he boldly proclaimed, “YOUR WHOLE BODY IS PORK!!!”

Ohhhs and Ahhhs resounded throughout the playground. Smiles stretched across the kids’ faces. Shouts of joy rang from the top of the swing set. I think some kids even leaped and through their fists in the air.

I knew it was over… the warm feeling of victory quickly escaped me as I was certain that the argument was over, and I was not victorious… defeated by a kid. And the worst part is that I still have no clue what the meaning of pork is, and why calling someone that carries so much weight.

Here’s the thing… I miss those days. I often look out my office window and wish I could step back into childhood when things were so simple. They don't worry about making a truck payment, or having a check come in before bills are due. They’re not thinking about retirement or having a good healthcare plan. Life is simple… play wall ball, chase this girl or that guy, or spin around until I feel sick... all equally good choices.

Come to think of it, we’re kind of like ants rebuilding their mounds… we’re so busy, and the things we busy ourselves with seem so important at the time, but from the outside looking in those things are ultimately meaningless.

I really think we need to simplify our lives and start investing in the eternal.

One day all of our earthly treasures will pass away. Designer jeans will wear out, cars will break down, things will go out of style… fill in the blank… whatever it might be, if it is of the earth it will pass away.

This is tough for us because we are so caught up in the now; but the more we separate ourselves from perishable things, then the more we will experience true freedom and true happiness in this life. And I’m not talking about this superficial happiness that is preached in the health wealth gospel… I’m talking about true happiness that can only come from walking in line with God’s intended order.

I hope we start taking more time to weigh our investments and focus on the life to come. Maybe it means selling your stuff and giving to the poor. Maybe it means giving a burger and talking to a homeless man about his situation. Maybe it means giving your life to ministry. Maybe it means getting more plugged into your church. Who knows where God will lead you... I only ask that you listen and be obedient.

"Turn your eyes upon Jesus... and the things of earth will grow strangely dim..."

One Bite at a Time

“You couldn’t stop the earth quake, you can’t fix Los Angeles, and you’re not going to be able to heal him.”

I went and saw the movie “The Soloist” the other night, which turned out to be quite delightful. I don’t think I’ll ever purchase it for my own library, but I would recommend going and seeing it.

Jamie Fox plays the role of a music prodigy that becomes mentally ill while at college in Ohio. Eventually he finds himself homeless in the streets of Los Angeles where the character played by Robert Downy Jr. (a columnist) discovers him and finds inspiration to write a story about his situation.

At the climax of the movie everything completely falls apart with the soloist and Robert Downy Jr. finds himself sitting next to his ex-wife pouring out his heart. It is at this moment she replies, “You couldn’t stop the earth quake, you can’t fix Los Angeles, and you’re not going to be able to heal him.”

I think this is what overwhelms so many of us as a society. We see all the sickness, poverty, and injustices around us, and then we realize that the surface has just been scratched as we take notice of these problems being magnified in third world countries... we get to the point where we feel like we just can’t do anything about it.

King Solomon had a similar reflection in Ecclesiastes chapter 4. He presents a very similiar observation to the world and then provides two ways in which we can respond to the evil that surrounds us: One is to fold our arms and give up; and the other is to keep ourselves so busy that we lose sight of reality.

How true is this of us today? We either completely give up because our efforts cannot even make a dent, or we busy ourselves with our own lives to the point that anything outside of our world is either opaque, or worse case, merely a fictional tail.

Wednesday morning at Chick-Fil-A we took prayer request, and a few of the high school girls commented on how they had a lot going on. At this point Pete Carter stepped in and offered some fatherly wisdom. He gave some simple advice that I have heard before, but it is often necessary to be reminded of such things.

He asked Laura if she knew how to eat an elephant. “No!” She replied, with a puzzled look on her face. Then he paused, and just looked at her for a second, and I butted in, “One bite at a time.” Then Pete chimed in, almost to echo me, “One bite at a time!”

So how does this tie into pushing back the evil that surrounds us?

First it is important to understand what the gospel is. I think some people mistake the gospel for taking care of social issues. But here’s the problem with that, the gospel is in no way tied to anything that we do… it is by grace, through faith alone. Then as a result of the gospel in our lives we should long to see justice brought to these social issues.

My fear is that we can become so overwhelmed with all the evil in the world that we never do anything about it. What if the Church started to take care of social issues instead of letting the government play the churches role? What if we had a positive influence on the society around us? What if non-Christians stopped thinking of us as self-centered bickering intolerant jerks, and saw us as an accurate representation of Christ?

Let’s face it, people are going to hate us because they hated Christ first; but people didn’t hate Christ because he went around healing the sick and caring for the oppressed. They hated him because he claimed to be God.

If we’re going to start impacting the world in a positive way, we can’t look at the big picture and become overwhelmed. We are going to have to take one bite at a time. I like the way John Randles puts it... "One day you'll be sitting on your front porch and your grandkids will ask you "What's that out in the yard?" Then you can say, "It used to be an elephant." And when they ask what happened to it, you can say, “I ate that sucker!”

As you observe all the evil in the world do not become overwhelmed and ignore it or give up... take one bite at a time and encourage those around you. Remember these three things: You cannot eat an elephant in one sitting. Many hands makes small work. And, if we all did a little, we could all do a lot.

A Reminding of the AWE in Awesome

I can remember hearing numerous times growing up that nothing good happens after midnight.

But what about just being outside?

I’ve always loved the night. There is just something about it that is awesome.

I’ve never been an insomniac or a huge night owl like some of my friends, but I do prefer to stay up a little later than I should.

I had a buddy in college that stayed up way too late all the time, and then the summer after our freshmen year he decided to work a night job at Krispy Kreme. He would stay up all night making hot donuts and throwing away old donuts by the trash bag full. Then when daylight rolled around he would have to wear one of those stupid looking beauty rest masks so he could actually sleep.

That summer was one of the best summers of my life. I worked outside washing cars, so I had a tan and cash in my pocket. Then when I wasn’t working I was either at the lake skiing or riding my mountain bike. It was a hard life, I know.

Well one night I couldn’t sleep and I had a ton of stuff on my mind. So at about 3am I through on my Camel Back Hydration System, put a light on the front of my bike, put on some head phones… I actually was using a walkman so I could listen to the radio… and then I hit the road. I really didn’t have a goal in mind, I just needed to clear my head. Then after a few miles I came up on the big bright Krispy Kreme “Hot Now” sign.

I wasn’t sure if Jay would be working or not, but I road through the drive through anyway to find out. I’m sure they had seen a lot of weird things at night, but I’m pretty sure I was the first shirtless mountain biker at 3 in the morning.

I tell that story to let you know that there was something about being on my bike (doing something I love) and being outside at night that helped me clear my mind. But was it something more?

I have recently been taking a ton of late night walks with Bearick (my beast of a dog). The other night I was taking my normal rout, hoping Bearick wouldn’t take a second dump because I already used his handy dandy poop sack picker-upper… and then I caught myself staring up at the sky. It was beautiful. The moon was full and the stars were still bright.

I got back to my house and just went and laid down in my backyard staring at the sky and pondering how amazing God is. What is man that God is mindful of him?

The daylight sky is pretty amazing too, but you are limited in what you can see. I’ll be honest… if I ever go to the beach I will still look at the shapes of the clouds and try to figure out what they look like, but the day time sky falls short. It falls short in painting the full picture of how small we are in this universe. It isn’t until you see all the stars and reflect on how many light years away they are, or catch a glimpse of splendor in watching a shooting star sparkle across the sky that you can really REALLY just feel small.

Who are we that God could place the galaxies in their place with the tips of his fingers, but when it came to humanity he slowed down and shaped us with his hands, creating and forming us in His image? How incredible is that?!

I think late night stares into the sky are good for our souls because they help us clear our minds. I think they help us clear our minds because we can be reminded that an unfathomably HUGE God is watching over us and is working all things together for our good so that we might better reflect the glory of His Son Jesus Christ.

You don’t have to have a mountain bike and friends that work third shift, and you don’t have to have a huge dog to walk… you just have to have a piece of sky to stare at. I think it would be good for your soul to go outside some night this week and just spend 30 minutes gazing towards the heavens and thinking about how incredible the God we serve is. Then think about how awesome it is that this same God loves you with a love that transcends anything our minds can even begin to comprehend.

Happy star gazing you guys!

Mancation

Shortly after I first arrived in Georgia I had to take off for Texas to go to a wedding. At the same time I left for Texas, Jason (my boss and friend) left for a “mancation.” It was a great concept. He went out to California, worked at The Ranch guiding white water rafts, and then he came back to civilization about a week later.

Ever since Jason took a mancation I had wanted to take one of my own. Well, for some reason the last month had been kind of a funk for me, and I can’t really explain it, but I really needed to take a vacation… or better yet, a mancation!

One of my good friends from Texas Tech lives in Colorado Springs and we had been talking about me coming to hang out for over a year now, so what better time to hit the mountains than ski season?

I really didn’t know how all of it would pull together, especially since I was broke and even had to ask my mom to wait a week before cashing a check that I had written her; but through some great people everything came together. Paul Robbins approved my vacation time, Anna Agee helped me get a flight through using some of her buddy passes with AirTran, Mrs. Ann unexpectedly gave me some spending cash, then Megan McLane provided an awesome couch to sleep on and used two of her buddy passes to reduce the cost of the ski lift tickets.

If it were not for all of these people then I would not have been able to pull off my first mancation. I am so thankful for each of them, and they probably have no idea how much it all meant to me.

Back to the funk... I was in desperate need for some spiritual refreshing, and the Colorado Rockies, in part, provided just what I needed. God has always had a way with my soul through the mountains, whether it is the Appalachians or the Rockies, there is something about the mountains that always seems to help me walk a little bit more in step with God. However, as awesome as the mountains were, they were not the main source of the spiritual refreshing God gave me.

What was it that brought me back? What revived my heart? What was it that brought joy to my spirit and soul? I believe God brought this to me through a genuine friendship.

God never intended us to walk through this life alone. I know there has often been the desire in my heart to retreat from this world and go live in the wilderness away from all the junk that life has to offer, but weekends like this bring me back to a greater knowledge of why God desires us to live in community with one another... why God doesn't want us to live out in the woods by ourselves.

Granted, money did provide the means to my mancation, but money did not provide the happiness.

The few days I spent in Colorado were filled with great community. Looking through pictures and using a thousand words to explain each one; covering miles of mountain roads while listening to great music; exchanging stories of lives lived thousands of miles apart; reminiscing on stories of old that brought back great memories; constantly fighting tiredness to squeeze the most out of every waking minute; taking picture after picture for future enjoyment; carving through the fresh powder of a recent snow and bombing mountains at intensely unsafe speeds; and all the while enjoying the company of a great friend while beginning a friendship with someone totally new. It was through these precious moments that God restored happiness to my soul.

Christ came that we might live life to the full, and one aspect he modeled this for us was through living life in true community. When we walk in step with how Christ modeled for us how to live then we walk closer to our maker. And when we are walking close to our maker there is a great refreshing to our soul… a refreshing that gives us a taste of the community we will have in heaven.

It is my prayer that I never take for granted the friends I have, and that I remain ever thankful to God for the moments where he gives us a taste of his glory. This week I tasted God’s glory through friendship, and I am thankful beyond words. The best words I can say is that my soul smiles because of the great friends God has placed in my life.

To all who have walked a season of life with me, or who are currently walking with me, I thank God for you. Thank you for being my friend.

Slippers on My Feet

At what age do moms stop dressing their children?

The last time I can remember my mom picking out a full outfit was in second grade. It was a yellow shirt (probably from JC Penny) and some stonewashed jean shorts.

I hated jean shorts because they weren’t comfortable. That is one trend I hope never comes back! The corduroys can come and go; heck, even bellbottoms can make a comeback, but I want jean shorts to stay away!

In 1992 I moved from Omaha, Nebraska to San Antonio, Texas. I went from the north were coke was “pop” and entered the republic of…

My elementary school had a bicycle rodeo! How stereotypical. But it was awesome! I loved riding bikes as a kid, and this was an opportunity to show off my skills.

In 4th grade the bicycle rodeo came around. It was my second rodeo and I had full intentions of winning this bad boy. But there was one thing that might hold me back… jean shorts! I hated those things, but my mom would still lay them out for me to wear. I think she had faith that I wouldn’t mess up picking out a shirt, but she wanted to have control over what pants I wore… I guess she knew too well that if she let me pick them out I would do just as I did.

She left for work about an hour before I took off to school on my bike. Once she was clear out of site I took the jean shorts, threw them in my closet and pulled out my Umbros. I don’t even know if that brand is still around, but they were comfortable light weight shorts for playing soccer or something.

Flannel was also in at the time. I liked the flannel shirt. So I was rocking some black athletic shorts with neon writing that read “umbro” with a red and black flannel shirt. I had no style. I dressed only for comfort.

I didn’t win the rodeo, but I did place! And it was probably due to my complete comfort while riding my bike.

I miss the days when comfort had the ability to override style.

Here’s the thing though, we still love to be comfortable. It may only be in the comfort of our own home with the blinds pulled shut… but there is nothing like a good pair of sweat pants with a ratted out old holey shirt that is considered inappropriate for public, and don’t forget to throw in the house slippers!

However, we must not let our faith become something that is out of style… something that we only show in the comfort of our own home when no one can see.

I have recently been reflecting on how uncomfortable our faith can be. Just the other day I was at a coffee shop and I felt the urge to go witness to a table of high school guys. I was busy studying, but every time I looked up to gather a thought I would see them and think I should go strike up a conversation.

But honestly that would have been uncomfortable. I kept thinking, “Well they look like good guys, I bet they go to a church down the street…” or “I would, but I don’t want to interrupt their conversation… it looks like it’s going pretty well.” The fact is that it would have been uncomfortable. How horrible is that?! I am a youth minister and I found myself making excuses not to witness.

Witnessing is uncomfortable almost ALL the time… but I think this is almost by design. Then we have to recognize that it is only by God’s power that we can fully proclaim His good news.

Then last Sunday during worship I noticed someone lift their hands, only to quickly put them down after every head and eye turned to see if they had a question or something. People are uncomfortable worshiping as the Spirit might lead them because it might seem out of the norm.

We become disgusted with the demoralization of society but then we are scared to influence it for the sake of comfort.

If we don’t break these walls and break out of the norm then we will continue to lose ground with our Christian influence and we will continue to have dull worship.

What are some areas of comfort you believe are holding back Christians?

It is my prayer and hope that these walls of comfort would continue to break down in my life and in the lives of others. Please join me in this destruction, and let’s see what lies on the other side. I’m willing to bet it is very beautiful and worthwhile!

We Will Give You 3 Months Pay as You Look for a New Job

Today I went to the gym to get a lift in before I started the rest of my Saturday festivities. I did all the lifting I planned on doing, but my last set made me a little light headed. I had planned on jogging home, but instead I decided to take my time and walk. I still had my headphones in and caught myself in this moment where I felt like I could be in the video of the song playing if it had a video.

I was listening to Sigur Ros who I have just recently been turned on to (great music). I was walking by a chain link fence that surrounded what used to be a tennis court. There were some weeds that had grown up in the grass area that separated the sidewalk from the fence, and the wind had caught them just right as they swayed to the rhythm of the song. I couldn’t help but wonder if a camera could capture what my eyes were taking in as this song softly played in my ears.

Music is simply inspirational. I love music, and I realize its power to tug on heart strings. I’m sure that with the right construction of worship songs in a service you could appeal to anyone’s emotions and create for them an amazing worship experience; but we must be extremely cautious with these types of inspirations.

Please don’t hear me wrong, I believe God delights in well composed and well played music; I believe God works through people’s speaking talents and their abilities to paint amazing pictures in our imaginations; but we can’t get caught up in trying to create a worship experience.

I recently reread a book called “Amusing Ourselves to Death,” where the author walks through the negative affects Sesame Street had on education. Learning became fun and kids began to like school… as long as school was like Sesame Street.

I think the same goes for church. We can make church fun and set out not to bore students, but we must be extremely careful with the environments we create. Sure students might begin to love church if they have drama, games, buildup worship songs, great public speakers, and buildings designed to cater directly to them… but what happens when they leave the youth group? What happens when they love church as long as church is like youth group?

I feel like we're constantly battling people who want us to try this model of ministry or that model of ministry. We are constantly dealing with people in the church who want us to do more gimmicks to get students in the doors. We are constantly dealing with these people getting inside our heads as we evaluate “success” on their terms.

What would happen if a student ministry running 50 students scrapped all of its activities and dropped down to 12 students? What would happen if the youth minister was only able to deeply invest in three of these students? What would happen if all they did was go throughout their town and teach the gospel and minister to people’s needs?

To the consumer driven society, which influences the church, that sees a business not turning a profit and recognize it as a dying business they would probably see this ministry as a dying ministry. To those who run a pumped up Wednesday night program for the sake of “getting them in the door,” they would probably see this ministry as unsuccessful. To the church that is more concerned with Sunday school attendance than the actual material being taught this ministry would be seen as digressing.

Would this youth minister keep his job very long?

What is more important, doing ministry to please the eyes and ears of the masses or doing ministry to glorify Christ? That answer is easy, to glorify Christ; but what does a ministry set out to glorify Christ look like? Does it look like its dying in the eyes of the consumers, or does it look like its exploding? Does it dwindle down to nothing before shaking up everything?

We can inspire students through all sorts of things, and any cult can pack out a room; but what should youth ministry look like? Should we be creating an atmosphere that makes church fun and set students up to leave the church when church no longer appeals to their emotional needs? Or do we set out to build disciples through Christ-centered teaching that historically won’t appeal to the masses?

If Jesus were a youth minister how would the consumer driven society that has its hands in the inner workings of the church evaluate his ministry? Successful or unsuccessful? If Jesus were a youth minister in your town which church would have the greatest numbers?

Would Jesus keep his job at the average church?

If you’re still reading I might need to apologize… I really don’t even know where I am going with this… I just needed to get some things off my chest; but if this has spurred any thoughts in your mind please leave a comment and let me know.

Perfect Messiness

I recently came up to Kentucky to take two j-term classes at Southern. I forgot how much I loved this place. Louisville, Kentucky is by far one of the coolest places I have lived, and I’ve lived quite a few places. It has a real unique flavor to it.

For lunch today I hit up one of my favorite Louisville Originals, El Mundo. It’s this awesome Mexican place that could hold its own even in the streets of San Antonio, Texas. I ordered the lunch combo, took a seat, and admired the unique atmosphere as I awaited my tasty meal. They called out my name, and as I picked up my plate the cook made sure to mention, “Be careful, the plate’s very hot.” Which of course, drew my attention even more so the food that would soon be in my belly.

Taking the plate in one hand, I swung by the counter that held the silverware and I grabbed a fork, knife, and napkin, and made my way back to my table. I sat down, took a deep breath, and I caught myself in this paused moment… realizing and admiring the perfect messiness of my plate.

There was a carne asada filled burrito nestled right next to a cheese enchilada, both covered in enchilada sauce with melted cheese. This was complemented by a mound of black beans and Spanish rice, with a little scoop of diced tomatoes mixed with cilantro. The whole plate seemed unified by a layer of sprinkled cheese scattered across the plate with a light line of sour cream curving from side to side to complete the aesthetic appeal. Is your mouth watering?! Because it should be!

This plate was completely messy, but completely perfect, all at the same time.

I can’t help but reflect on the messiness of the church. As a minister it is so easy to get caught up in the programmatic nature of the church. We have a stinkin program for EVERYTHING… and this inevitably leads pastors to evaluating their success, or their effectiveness, by the smoothness of these programs playing themselves out.

We fall into this pit of thinking church has to be pretty, as if God could only move in a church that has clear cut lines. In this model church becomes an event that has to be well planned. While I am definitely a proponent of a church service being well planned and having a natural flow to the service, I am adamantly against a church service that might as well invite you to sit back and grab a popcorn and coke as you prepare to be entertained on the level of a downscaled U2 concert.

We cannot be so caught up with having all of our ducks in a row that we miss doing effective ministry.

Christ does not beautify the church by making it neat and pretty. He does not beautify the church by only inviting those from cookie cutter homes to join the festivities. He makes the church beautiful by showing his amazing grace and mercy to a completely undeserving people.
He unites Jews and Gentiles, Blacks and Whites, Hispanics and Asians… he unites intact homes with broken homes… he unites preppy people with biker people, tatted up people with white collar people, hip hoppers with punk rockers, and the list could go on and on. He takes the messiest, most undeserving people, and makes them complete. This is what makes the church beautiful.

Will you join me in celebrating the perfect messiness of the church?

Maybe if we celebrate this then we will be more effective in reaching the poor and broken hearted, the orphans and the widows, the absentee fathers and the drug addicted mothers, the homosexuals and the hookers… maybe if we celebrate this, then we can start making progress in doing our part in bringing God’s kingdom, for His glory.

Let’s stop getting so caught up in the wrong things, and let’s join together in worshiping Christ as a unified group of jacked up messy people. Maybe the worship won’t have an amazing entertainment factor to it… But, hey, I would rather worship with people who are spiritually poor, broken hearted, understanding of mercy, and hungering to know God more over a well polished group of modern day Pharisees any day of the week!

Thank God for his perfect messiness.