U-turns in the Kingdom

We've spent the last several Advent weeks preparing for Christmas tomorrow. What continues to strike me is Jesus born in a barn. The humility and simplicity of how God chose to enter into our world carries a profound weight to it that's too easily lost on the season. Philippians 2 says,

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!

We understand what happened at Christmas but we don't understand what any of it means. Not that there's any one meaning or reason but, more to the point, that we don't give it any thought at all. I should wonder as I think about Christ's birth if the humility I see in that act would have some influence on the way I live my life. Christ had everything we strive for in life, and he forsook it to be with us. And, in some kind of ironic twist, we find ourselves forsaking God for all the things we strive for in life.

If it seems backwards, it should. We often find ourselves going in the complete opposite direction that we should be going, doing exactly the opposite of what we should be doing. Our values, our goals and pursuits are cast in stark contrast to God's. That's why God's ways seem so counter-intuitive to us sometimes - who's wrong, him or us? That's why Jesus and others use religious terms like "repent", which literally means, "to turn around" or "to go the other way".

God, born a helpless baby in a stinky manger. Divinity stuffed into humanity. Light shining in the darkness. The most valuable thing in the world, found among the worthless. Its the incredible foolishness of the Christmas story cast against our "normal" values and pursuits that jars us out of our apathy and spiritual inertia. All of a sudden, I'm left to ask what's more foolish, God sacrificing his glory to be with us or me selling my soul for money, prestige, or power.

Looking into the face of a little baby, I'm brought to my knees. Yes, God I hear you. Yes, I understand - or at least I'm beginning to.

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned...

Blogger's Block

Hello long lost blog. It's probably been evident that I have lately found a lack of time and motivation for writing more in my blog. I'm honestly not too worried about this. First of all, the day that I wrote because I felt obligated too this would cease to give me any pleasure at all. Secondly, I've noticed in my life that I go through seasons when I am either "inhaling" or "exhaling" spiritually. In other words, sometimes I have something to say, sometimes I feel I should just shut and listen. One inevitably leads to the other so I'm confident this "blogger's block" will come to an end.

Sufficed to say that, during this season of listening, God has begun to tell me much. I feel like he's leading me into some very new exciting directions. I feel like God is actively at work in my life. I get a sense of his movement and his pulling in a very specific direction. I'm trying to confirm all of this with him by staying in conversation with him.

In the meantime, I'm just going to sit here, be quiet, and listen...

Army of None

Rule #1 on the battlefield - find out who's firing at you.

I've been doing some thinking lately about what/who the chief opponents of the church truly are. There's a lot of rhetoric around this issue and a lot of comforting answers that don't have that much truth to them. And so while the church would like to think the cause of its problems are some combination of gays, MTV, and the democratic party, I think the root cause hits a lot closer to home.

Taking a long term view of church history over the last 2000 years it would seem that the church is a victim of its own success. The church was a tiny mustard seed that grew into a 300 lb. gorilla which then in turn became a 90 year-old women in a walker. As a church, we wonder what we can do to fight those that oppose us but I propose that our greatest enemy is oftentimes, ourselves.

The church suffers from a self-imposed sickness that has perhaps more severely hindered its health and growth than Satan’s opposition ever did. Or, to think about it another way, perhaps apathy has been Satan’s most effective tool over the millennia.

In short, apathy has led to lethargy which has, in turn, led to atrophy.

At the risk of nostalgia, a summary reading of Acts picks up on something very fresh about the Christ followers before they had even begun to be called Christians. There was an urgency to their mission; a sense of sacrifice and excitement that has since largely abated. Somewhere along the way, Christians ceased to be the ones being thrown in the lion's den anymore, they were the lions. For centuries, the midevil and catholic churches could sit back and tell the world that it should come to them - effectively reversing the Great Commission that Jesus had left his followers when he returned to heaven.

Had the church really heard from Jesus to change his command to them or, having achieved a certain level of power and comfort, thought it had accomplished its goal of conquering the world and welcomed anyone that wished to relish that victory to join in doing so?

Before the church had even effectively begun, Jesus stated the problem and the solution in very clear terms. Staring out over a valley of hurting and lost people, he said, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." Jesus is saying that the problem is not the harvest but the workers!

The modern day church is in urgent need of a sense of urgency about its mission. Is the church still filled with men and women willing to sacrifice anything to glorify Christ in the world? Are we even excited about our faith anymore?! Thankfully, I do believe that the answer is yes. As with every generation, the Lord preserves out of it a remnant that has stayed true to his calling. There exists in this remnant a passion that can still save the world.

And, as it most always is, that remnant is led by its young people.

I see a certain sense of irony in the fact that the generations (X and Y) accosted and chided for their relative lack of motivation and apathy would be the generation whom, by its passion for God, could save the church - and thereby, the world.

In Isaiah 6, God calls out, “Who will I send and who will go.” In the story, Isaiah responds that he will go but, notice carefully, God wasn’t speaking directly to anyone – there is no referent in God’s statement. What I’m led to believe about this call is that its an open invitation as valid today as it was when Isaiah heard. God’s voice is echoing out of heaven calling to each of us and demanding a response. I believe that our generation will respond but let us state very clearly to those that hestitate that no response is effectively a ‘no’.

The time for inaction in God's church has passed. Echoing the words of many a biblical author, love for God will not merely be shown by sentiment but truly by action. I believe that this valley of dry bones can once again rise to be - "a vast army".

Adore

I don't have pages to write tonight but, sitting here listening to music and worshiping God, a very simple thought occurred to me. I find many people, especially in very recent conversations, with a very strong belief in God and a very adamant belief in Christian doctrine.

But very few times do I meet someone that simply adores God.

God is the most beautiful person I've ever met. His teachings are the best advice and guidance I've ever received. Jesus is the greatest man that ever lived and I wish I could be everything that he was. Loving, kind, caring, giving, joyful, funny, powerful but gentle.

I see a lot of people that believe stuff really strongly. I meet very few people that adore anything except themselves. And selfishness is a paltry form of adoration. As Christ followers, we can say that we adore someone so far beyond us and yet so close that he adores us more. Our God smiles when he sees us, he dances over us. He has celebrated every day that you've ever lived. I've never lacked a single thing. In every situation, he's provided for my needs and then more. So I know today, surer than anything else I know, that God rejoices over my joy.

I feel no need to be articulate tonight so much as to communicate how totally fixated I am on my Jesus, my God. Let my adoration be my testimony tonight.

Demonstration vs. Demonstration

As always, I really appreciate JD and Colbey's comments. Their response to my last blog caused me to think more about how Jesus took a stand against the conventions of his day that he opposed.

In general, people have a pretty ugly way of disagreeing with one another. A random sampling of the news today will verify this fact. Rarely do I find people/groups that can disagree with one another in a civilized fashion. And on this accord, Christians are as guilty as anyone else. In fact, with a mandate to be just the opposite, I'd say Christ-followers are doubly incriminated for their hateful displays of opinion and protest. It's doubtful that loud demonstrations have ever swayed the opinion of any great number of people but, rather, to solidify them in their views.

What we see in Jesus is an entirely different and loving way of demonstrating his opposition to the wrongs of his culture. But his methods weren't just different, they were far more effective. Jesus protested the culture of the day by demonstrating the alternative. He advocated his message by his actions and, by doing so, subverted the positions of those he opposed.

This is a very different kind of "demonstration" though. The term demonstration has multiple meanings. When you think of the first, think of shouting lines of protesters holding big signs stating their opinion on something. Think of the second, for example, as me demonstrating a product I want you to buy by actually showing you how it works. The first kind of demonstration involves much more talk, the second, a lot more action.

Jesus preferred the second, he lived out the message he was preaching thereby demonstrating its validity. This, I believe, presents a real challenge to many so-called Christ followers because yelling is oftentimes far easier than actually changing one's life to reflect Jesus' commands. I don't know whether I'm more amused or heart broken when all Christians do is talk about their faith and then wonder why no one is convinced. Honestly, why should someone else adopt a doctrine into their lives that we are either unwilling or unable to adopt ourselves. Our hypocrisy has drained the Gospel of its power and simply yelling louder compensates not for the loss.

As followers of Christ, we will begin to change the world when we, first, change our lives. If we pay attention to the One we claim to follow we'll see an example already provided. Christ's example shows us that his lifestyle is possible for those that are willing.

So the question becomes, are we willing?

Enigma

At first, I was going to name this blog something to the effect of "Pissing off Pharisee's - A Practical Guide". While I will talk about this, "Enigma" seemed to strike more at the heart of what I've been thinking about lately.

This past year, there've been times when I've acutely felt a tension about living the life I want to live in this world. At times I can feel opposed, other times scorn. Most people are nicer than that, they're just kinda confused (maybe/hopefully a little intrigued) about the whole thing. It led me to think about the opposition Jesus was met with living the kind of life he lived while he was here. Oddly enough, Jesus met the most opposition with the so-called "religious people" of his day. For some odd reason, something inside of me takes great joy in how much Jesus pissed off "religious people". :-)

As I thought about it, what angered the religious leaders of Jesus' day most was not Jesus' direct attacks on them and the culture they set up. After all, most of Jesus' "direct attacks" were in response to a question or attack initially directed at him. In fact, many people of His day were issuing such direct attacks and didn't draw nearly the ire that Jesus did. The reason Jesus inspired such anger in the relgious people of his day is far less salient. Simply put, he wouldn't play by their rules.

I read many of the first interactions Jesus had with pharisaical types as an attempt to recruit by the latter. Initially, the Pharisees were probably just trying to figure out who's "side" Jesus was on. Many people were disappointed to find out that Jesus wasn't on any of their sides. He was on God's side. He was on the side of the poor and oppressed, people whom it wasn't very advantagious to side with. As he grew in power and influence, I think it bothered people very much that Jesus would not align himself with their cause.

Two other things really escalated the matter. Jesus' lifestyle wouldn't have been as potent if it had not been so successful. By successful, I mean many things. First, consistency; Jesus was able to live a life that didn't comprimise the ideal he preached. Beyond that, it was staggering how well Jesus' lifestyle worked in a world that was seemingly so set against it. He seemed to swim against the current of his culture with an ease that, I think, frustrated many people that wanted him to just "get with the program". Jesus life turned everything they understood about life on its head and, most imporantly, made that life attractive to others. The Pharisees, in a very unguarded moment, even once proclaimed, "Look how the whole world has gone after him!" (John 12:19b - in fact, read the whole chapter). It's when Jesus began drawing others to himself that the Pharisees' frustration turned into rage. Jesus' lifestyle gave people not just another way to live but a better way to live.

Jesus was an enigma because it was impossible to understand him apart from God. When we talk about proclaiming the Gospel, far beyond mere words, we mean taking Jesus' lifestyle and demonstrating it in our own lives. We'll find that, as we do this, our lives will sometimes have the same effect on people that Jesus' did. To make a lifestyle of out Jesus' teaching will, as a natural consequence, draw the attention of those around us both inside and outside of the church. Some responses will be positive and encouraging others, out of sheer confusion or fear, will not be as encouraging. We must be prepared for either. Once people have tried to understand you apart from God, and failed, they will have to turn toward God to make any sense of your life. Like the dancer that once said, "If I could say it, I wouldn't have to dance it", we will say more with our actions than our words could ever have expressed.

You will be an enigma because it will be impossible to understand you apart from God...

What's Playing? - Angels and Airwaves

So this begins a new feature I'd like to start on my blog. Periodically, I'd like to talk about new music (or at least new to me) that I've been checking out.

The name of the band may not seem familiar but the band's vocalist and front man, Tom DeLonge, will be immediately recognizable for the millions of Blink182 fans, who have appreciated his work for many years already.

Beginning with Blink's last album, DeLonge's songwriting prowess has began to grow and mature, continuing that upward progression with his new project, Angels and Airwaves, and their debut CD, We Dont' Have to Whisper. Once you shake the notion that you're just listening to another Blink182 album, you'll start to appreciate the depth of this offering, particularly in its lyrics. You'll definitely want to pull the lyrics out of the jacket on this one and give them a read as you listen.

DeLonge takes a departure from typical teen angst over the problems of the world and takes this opportunity to sing about the solution in inspiring fashion. Intended or not, many of the lyrics have a decidedly spiritual tone to them (at least to this listener). For instance, A&A's track, A Little's Enough, is a song about a world where there is no pain and allowing that healing to start in your heart now. Check out an exerpt from the song...

Green trees were the first sign
The deepest blue, the clearest sky
The silence came with the brightest eyes
And turned water into wine

The children ran to see
The parents stood in disbelief
And those who knew braced for the ride
The earth itself then came alive to say

I, I can do anything
If you want me here
And I can fix anything
If you let me near
Where are those secrets now?
That you're too scared to tell
I'd whisper them all aloud
So you can hear your self

While not every part of the CD is filled with this much depth and meaning, I wouldn't say there was any part that I truly didn't like. The CD on the whole is an impressive and significant leap forward for DeLong's art. Personally, the power of some of DeLong's lyrics have actually inspired me to revisit my poetry as an avenue of personal expression. Overall, the CD is definitely worth checking out. Post your thoughts on it once you give it a listen...

Suprised by Goodness

After a month's hiatus from blogging, I'm finally sitting down to write about some of the stuff God's been teaching me over the last month. The good news is that I have a whole month of stuff to write about!

More than anything, this past month, I've seen God answer numerous prayers in absolutely amazing ways. Like many people, my prayer life comes in waves but, recently, I've experienced a real renaissance in prayer. What's struck me most during this time is how suprised I am when God answers my prayers. Perhaps I wouldn't have normally noticed it but the frequency and magnitude of God's answers have made this fact increasingly apparent.

The Bible is stuffed with quotes from God saying if we pray to him about things, he'll answer. Most notably in Matt, chapter 7, Jesus says, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."

I'm not sure how much more plainly he could say it. But then he goes farther: "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!".

In this passage, God not only speaks of his willingness to answer our prayers but, even moreso, his enjoyment in doing so. As I've thought over this passage recently, one question lingers in my heart: God, I know you're good but are you really that good?

It's not a very orthodox question to ask, but its honest. I'm continually underestimating how good God is and he's, therefore, continually suprising me by answering prayers that I, honestly, never expected him to answer. It's some kind of excessive-compulsive need I have to draw a line around God; to know his boundaries so I can say I've figured him out.

It is with much regret that I must admit I am running out of energy trying to put God in a box. He simply refuses to respect the boundaries I place on him. I'm compelled to start asking for impossible things like entire cities and an exciting desk job. I'm becoming convinced my prayers are almost tangible in God's presence. And most dangerous of all, I'm starting to believe the prayers I pray.

God keep suprising us with your goodness. Amen...

New York City

So I just got back from a trip to New York City with my wife, celebrating our first anniversary! We had a blast checking out Manhattan. We went to a show on Broadway, wandered around Times Square for about a day, walked through Central Park, and a ton more. I love cities and New York City is one of the best. You definitely have to love people though because everywhere is crowded! And don't even think about taking a car to visit, buses and the subway will take you anywhere you need to go for a fraction of the stress. We'll definitely visit again, there's so much to do. I posted some pics up on flickr for anyone interested.

I know, I know, I've been pretty lax with posting lately. More posts are soon to come I promise.

Arnold vs. Chuck (aka Nuclear war)

What else could be said? It's reasonable to suppose that the solar system would be altered forever by the clash of these two titans. Of course, Arnold would eventually win (no doubt) and then he would rule that was left of the Earth as Grand Imperial Governa of da Planet!

A long narrow road

With the cross fresh in our memory from Easter a month ago, its helpful to spend some time thinking about what God intended Jesus' sacrifice and resurrection to result in. Surely Jesus' death and resurrection mean eternity in heaven after we die for those of us that follow Him. But for centuries, the underlying assumption has been that Jesus' cross had to do with death, his and what happens to us after ours. But, if we look closer, I think we'll find that Jesus' cross had far more to do with life than it ever did death.

Does it ever stike you funny that Jesus bothered being born and growing up - living an entire 33-ish years of life here just to be crucified in the end? Couldn't he have landed on Earth full grown, died a blameless death, and rocketed back up to heaven after the resurrection? If God took the time and trouble to live 30-some years here, I think we could spare a couple minutes to see if we can understand why.

Because Jesus' life wasn't just him biding time between his birth and his cross. It was him demonstrating a new kind (or quality) of life. In the words of NT Wright, "a new way to be human." Jesus' life was the blueprint, our example to follow long after he had gone back to heaven.

So how does Jesus' life and his cross fit together? The latter makes the former possible - Jesus' death frees us from Sin and gives us another way. It enables and inspires us to live our lives the way Jesus did his. But we often hold his life at arm's reach, thinking that his death was the only thing that directly affected us. Between now and heaven, we think we can admire his life, appreciate his death, and then get on with our own lives.

To know that Jesus lived a life that he intended us to emulate is a challenging thing. We have no problem being "good" to the extent that its convenient. But when our goal becomes to live our lives like Jesus would, we've chosen a more difficult way. A narrow road as long as our lifespan. We have to be willing to pay the price to walk down this road because it is the life we were intended to live. From the accounts of other that have already walked down that road we know that it has its rewards - a quality of life this world will never be able to match.

We also know that, walking down this road, we'll succed in drawing attention to ourselves. Some people shy away from this because of the stigmas arounding "radical" followers of Christ. There have been plenty of loud-mouths that call themselves Christians and do a horrible job of representing who he really is. Surely we don't want to be lumped into that group. But we have to understand that if we don't step out there accurately modeling Jesus with our lives, the only thing people are going to know about Jesus is what the loud-mouths say - and that is a tragedy.

Looking down that road and over the horizon, I see the glow of something great beyond it. Along the path I find little notes of those that have gone before me encouraging me to continue. Going a little further, I meet other travelers heading in the same direction as me. And the longer I walk down this road that I was so afraid to start walking down, the more wonder how I could have walked anywhere else.

The Best Job in America

Now some might say that playing Jack Bauer on TV is the best job in America but, according to CNN, I have the best job in America! Wow, do I get a trophy or something?! Well, its not like getting paid to play baseball or nothing but it will do for now I guess. What interests me is that job fulfillment didn't play a factor in the ranking. I guess I'm not suprised by that but my evaluation of a great job would be knowing that what I do matters. That the world is a better place because of what I do. Now certainly we can (and should) ask those same questions of our lives overall. I definitely feel like I do a lot of meaningful things that help the world - I just do them after work. If that's the case then, does my job have to be world-changing if some other part of my life is? As old as I may seem to some of you, I'm still way too young to claim to know the answer that question.

I'm in a book!

Perhaps that whooshing sound is my fifteen minutes of fame rushing past me but I found a book today that I'm in! Well...I was co-author of a chapter in the book. Still cool if you ask me. Words I wrote are in a textbook now. Check it out at Oxford University Press and reserve your copy today! (I've been promised a zero percent commission on every copy I sell)

An Easter Story

What if you were walking along the river one day and you saw a man drowning in the river? You run up to the bank of the river and call out to him. He answers back insisting that he is not drowning and tells you to go away. Watching him for a second, its readily apparent that the man's words do not reflect the severity of the situation. If someone doesn't jump in an save him immediately he will, without a doubt, drown. So you jump in the river, grab him, and start pulling him toward the river bank. All the while he curses at you and tells you he doesn't need your help. When you reach the shore, he rips himself out of your arms. Screaming at you he says, "I told you that I didn't need your help!!!" And then he storms off.

Time goes on and the man you save goes back to his life. He enjoys a good life with people and things that he loves dearly but the event at the river continues to haunt him. For any number of reasons, he can't admit to himself that he was in trouble and needed to be saved. He convinces himself that he owes you no gratitude since, after all, he didn't ask you to do what you did. But still the event remains fresh in his mind day after day, year after year.

But as time goes by, he starts to take a new perspective on that day at the river. Maybe his situation had been a little more dire than he had been willing to admit at the time. He starts to think that your actions were more appropriately based on the facts of the situation than his words at the time. He looks around at his life, everything that's beautiful and everything that he loves. He realizes that every day he's lived from that fateful day to this is, essentially, a gift because he wouldn't have had it if you hadn't saved him. This realization falls over him slowly, first understanding, then denial, then acceptance.

Finally, he's ready to admit that he did need your help. That he has you to thank for the life he can enjoy now because he wouldn't have had his life otherwise. That every good thing he has is in some way tied to the fact that you saved him years earlier. He begins the work to find you and thank you. It's difficult at first but, with some work, he tracks you down and has the chance to finally show his appreciation for what you did at the river. Any such appreciation comes with it some regret for how he treated you at the time, and so he apologizes as well.

This Easter we focus on Christ's sacrifice with a tone of appreciation and apology. The Apostle John says it this way that, "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Drowning in our own sin, Christ saw it fit to save us even as we cursed him for it every step of the way. Praise be to God that he paid more attention to our situation than he did our words. Would we, today, turn around and thank him for what he did and praise him for how awesome he is.

Happy Easter everyone. Praise Jesus for first enduring, and then conquering, death itself. For that we praise him.

Bringing Chaos to my Order

I'd worked so hard to prepare for the day that was coming...

In one month I would graduate with my PhD, get married, move to Richmond, and start a new job. It was something coming over the horizon that was so gigantic that you saw it for miles before you ever got to it. I'd thought about it for at least a year and begun to make plans accordingly.

I was putting the final touches on my dissertation and preparing for my defense. We took trips to Richmond and scoped out apartments to live in. I applied to three dozen different jobs looking for something in Richmond that I might enjoy doing. We were planning the wedding and all the details associated with that. Planning, planning, planning. Preparing, preparing, preparing.

But at some point something changed. My efforts to be responsible and diligent became my efforts to "plan out" anything that had the potential of being difficult. I'd busied myself with planning so I wouldn't have to deal with the fact that I was afraid of all the change that was about to happen. None of the change was bad but if was going to be difficult to acclimate to nonetheless.

God broke through my busyness to confront me with my fear and tell me it was okay to be that way. I wrote down in my journal what I heard from God at that time: "You run and run and run because you're greatest fear is true. Graduating, getting married, getting a job, moving to Richmond, everything else is going to be hard. It's going to be difficult no matter how much you prepare. And I'm not going to let you sidestep this one... I can bring chaos to your order."

Idols come in many forms, they are whatever you've chosen to worship instead of God. Our idols are worthless because they are not as worthy of our worship as God is. And for me at that time (and I'm sure many others) my idol, what I chose to worship instead of God, were my own plans and my preparations - my attempts to control an unknown future that I was afraid of. Sometimes we find that our plans are safer than faith. Why trust God when I can just control everything and take care of it myself?

But our best attempts to control our own future can't compare with God's ability to guide our lives. But that's definitely a step of faith because God's plans aren't at all predictable, comfortable, or safe. What we think we want is predictability, comfort, and safety but standing on the other side of that kind of life I'm reasonably sure I'd be pretty disappointed with living such a boring life.

Long story short, "the month" came and went. All of our preparations really helped us get started in Richmond but, as God predicted, it was (and still is) hard. I'm pretty sure that the unknown will never be comfortable for me but knowing that God's active in what's happening in my life is exciting and comforting in its own way.

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps." - Proverbs 16:9

The Thinking Diet

This is Brad Wilson's idea but its just so brilliant I had to post on my blog...think about it and let me know what you think...get it...think about it(!)...hmm...might make more sense after you read it...

--------------------------

Burning calories by "thinking hard" instead of "working hard".

Think about it. The neurons and electrodes in your brain require some sort of energy to operate. So every time to think a thought your brain is sending electro charged signals through the chemical compounds of your neural connections. These electrical currents must come from somewhere! Where does the energy come from to operate your brain? From calories of course. From your metabolic system. Therefore, I must conclude that I can burn calories by thinking.

There's big money in this. I could write a book or two, make a cookbook, start a TV show and radio show, develop an entire program. I'll call it: "The Thinking Diet: Burning Calories by Thinking Deep Thoughts".

Now the only thing I have to do is run some tests to determine what sort of thoughts burn the most calories. For example, maybe thoughts on early renaissance architecture burn more calories than thoughts on femoral arteries. Or maybe thoughts about figs can use more calories than thoughts on checkers stratagem.

Instead of working out, we'll think-out and ponder figs for an hour every day. We could start Think Tank Gyms. No longer do we need expensive weight equipment and tread mills. We'll stock our Think Tank Gyms with lots of chairs and books about early renaissance architecture. People will pay us to provide them with coaching and training classes to better prepare their minds for thinking-out.

I'm pretty sure it will work.

-brad

Kickin' Ass at the Monument 10K

So I ran my first 10K yesterday with my wife here in Richmond along beautiful Monument Ave. Richmond's such a cool city, they always seem to have fun things like this going on (and 20,000 people show up for the party). Katie and I came in just a little over our lofty goal of an hour and a half to place 14516 and 14518! That's right folks, 14,500th place!!!! Booyah, yea!! And with that we still be like 5,000 people! hehe, anyways it was pretty fun and I think you should come run the Monument 10K with us next year.

Hello New You!

Last night in Core Community, we kicked off our "Soul Clinic" series which is focused on healing but also so much more. God's ultimate vision for us is not just to get us back to "normal" again but to take us far beyond that. The passage we focused on was in Judges 6, the story of Gideon, a farmer's son living in Israel during the time of the Midianite occupation. Verse 11 and following says that a angel came and sat down near Gideon and greeted him by say, "The Lord is with you, O mighty warrior!" Nothing in the story would lead us to believe that anything about Gideon was mighty or militant and yet the angel greets with the name "Mighty Warrior." Gideon was just as baffled as we are by the salutation and endeavors at that point to correct the angel is his obvious error.

But was the angel mistaken or was he just privy to things about Gideon that even Gideon was not yet aware of? Gideon does go on to defeat the Midianites and save Israel in quite a "might warrior-ish" way. So it would seem that Gideon was the one mistaken in the first place.

As we think about God's vision for our lives we should have a similar sneaking suspicion that God may know things about our true identity and potential that we are not yet aware of. If God came to us today with a new name, a name that spoke to our destiny in this life, would we balk like Gideon did, like Abraham did, like Moses, Mary, and so many others did? Or would we take in good confidence that God is seeing us not only as who we are but also as the person we're becoming?

Today you may doubt how extraordinary you are but God doesn't. I believe that, for many Christ followers, God has already laid a vision on your heart of what your life should be about. For those that haven't received that from God, Christian or not-yet-Christian, he is faithful to provide that if you pursue him and listen. My prayer for you today is that you have the wisdom the hear God's calling on your life, his vision for who you are, and that you would have the courage to pursue that new identity.

Greetings, extraordinary person! The world is waiting for you.

Slackers of the world UNITE!

It's fascinating to see how the world's philosophy of "more is better" is collapsing upon itself in so many different arenas at once. One huge example is definitely the workplace. Conventional wisdom would say that a person that works 80 hours a week or works on two projects is twice as productive and valuable as a person that works 40 hours a week on one project - maybe but maybe not. Check out this article I found on workplace productivity and creativity, its pretty good. Of course, I say that overwork affects more than just our creativity but that's another blog ;-) Enjoy!

Big UP to peps that link to me!

You know, in blog-land there's no greater honor than to be "linked to" by someone else's blog. These days, I actually owe a chunk of the hits to my blog to Eric Young (like a quarter of my hits) and Chris Poch as well. This blog is just to tell ya how much I love ya! One of these days, I promise I'll put up a "Friends' blogs" section on my page but this will have to suffice as gratitude in the meantime...

Blog's back up!

Silly blog wasn't working for a day or so there, it just came up blank. I had to republish my blog and then do a shift-refresh to get it to show up again. Of course, I haven't been posting much for the last month or two so it wouldn't have made much of a difference that it wasn't working! Well, many of the reasons that I haven't been posting lately have been resolved so I expect to start posting more frequently again.

The real story of Saint Patrick

Ah, four leaf clovers and pints of green beer. St. Patrick's Day is really a fun holiday to celebrate. But beyond knowing that we should where green today (which I didn't) many people really have no clue who Saint Patrick is and why we celebrate his life. Here's a real brief history:

His name was Patricius, a young Roman citizen living in Britain with his family back in the 5th century. At the age of 16, Patricius' town was attacked by Irish raiders and he was carried to Ireland as a slave. His master was a druidic high priest who taught him the celtic language and the customs of the druids. Though lukewarm in his faith as a child, Patricius' faith grew deeply during this trying time. At the age of 22, he escaped his master and joined a monistary in France adopting the name Patrick. Twelve years later, God issued Patrick a strong call to go back to Ireland to preach the Gospel to the people that had enslaved him. Stories of Patrick's ministry work in Irleland is legendary even to this day. Among other things, many powerful Celtic prayers are credited to him including one of my favorites, Saint Patrick's breastplate:

I rise today
In power’s strength, invoking the Trinity,
Believing in threeness,
Confessing the oneness,
Of creation’s Creator

I rise today
In the power of Christ’s birth and baptism,
In the power of his crucifixion and burial,
In the power of his rising and ascending,
In the power of his descending and judging.

I rise today
In the power of the love of cherubim,
In the obedience of angels
And service of archangels,
In hope of rising to receive the reward,
In the prayers of patriarchs,
In the predictions of prophets,
In the preaching of apostles,
In the faith of confessors,
In the innocence of holy virgins,
In the deeds of the righteous.

I rise today
In heaven’s might
In sun’s brightness
In moon’s radiance
In fire’s glory
In lightning’s quickness
In wind’s swiftness
In sea’s depth,
In earth’s stability,
In rock’s fixity.

I rise today
With the power of God to pilot me,
God’s strength to sustain me,
God’s wisdom to guide me,
God’s eye to look ahead for me,
God’s ear to hear me,
God’s word to speak for me,
God’s hand to protect me,
God’s way before me,
God’s shield to defend me,
God’s host to deliver me:
From snares of devils,
From evil temptations,
From nature’s failings,
From all who wish to harm me,
Far or hear,
Alone and in a crowd.

Around me I gather today all these powers
against every cruel and merciless force
to attack my body and soul,
against the charms of false prophets,
the black laws of paganism,
the false laws of heretics,
the deceptions of idolatry,
against spells cast by women, smiths and druids,
and all unlawful knowledge
that harms the body and soul.

May Christ protect me today
Against poison and burning,
Against drowning and wounding,
So that I may have abundant reward;
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me;
Christ to right of me, Christ to left of me;
Christ in my lying, Christ in my sitting, Christ in my rising;
Christ in the heart of all who think of me,
Christ in the tongue of all who speak to me,
Christ in the eye of all who see me,
Christ in the ear of all who hear me.

I rise today
In power’s strength, invoking the Trinity,
Believing in threeness,
Confessing the oneness,
Of creation’s Creator.

For more of Patrick's story, I recommend reading The Celtic Way of Evangelism. It's a fascinating book and an easy read.

Now that you are sufficiently informed on the true meaning of St. Patrick's day you can feel free to celebrate with some green beer!!! Here's a tip: you're not drunk until you have to hold onto the grass to keep from falling off the Earth. :-)

It is finished

Today is a really special day for me.

Today a very tough season of my life comes to an end - God has again provided in an amazing way. As I look back on this trial, I'm left with a lot of different thoughts. I don't blame God for this trial, although I've been tempted to many time over the past several months. I wonder what I could have done differently that could have shortened this trial or made it go away altogether. I wonder if I should have been stronger, wiser, or prayed more. But then I realize that is neither here nor there. Perhaps in the same situation years from now I would have fared much better. Being stronger and wiser, I would have known exactly what to do and how to handle myself. But, again, that thought has very little value to me right now. The point is that a trial is a trial because it was tough for me where I was at right now. I can't be down on myself about what I might have done differently. But, going forward, I do pray to God that I've learned something that will help me in other situations I may face. Perhaps some time in the future I will be in a very similar situation and will know better what to do - but only God knows the balance of my story.

Lastly, I've been haunted by what other people thought of me through this trial. Where they disappointed, where they suprised that I didn't handle myself better though it? I don't know. I probably will never know. But, in the end, it doesn't really matter. Throughout this season, I've asked God to guide my actions and help me to honor him always. In the end, if God is pleased with how I handled myself through this time then I'm more than satisfied with that.

Praise God for navigating me through yet another stretch of troubled waters. Today is my victory dance. :-)

Are you happy?

I was reading an article online that I thought people would be interested in. Pew Research Center did a study on happiness and came up with some interesting results: http://pewresearch.org/social/pack.php?PackID=1

One of the gigantic assumptions of this survey, however, is that people know what happiness is - that I would debate more than any one point of this survey. Either way, pretty interesting stuff for your enjoyment...

Three Images for Evangelism (the carpenter)

So after weeks of non-posting-ness I am back (!) to talk about the third image for evangelism. Frankly, I don't know what everyone has done in meantime without something to read on my blog. Anyways, sorry it took so darn long...

So while the first two images (the fisherman and the farmer) really focused on the task of evangelism prior to a person deciding to follow Christ, the third image (the carpenter) has more to do with what happens afterwards.

The carpenter is a critical image for the modern church to catch hold of since what it conotates is so severly lacking in most churchs' philosophy of evangelism. My dad (among other people I know) is a carpenter which makes me the son of a carpenter in several senses. What I admire about them is that they are truly craftsmen and care about their work. They take pride in what they are making. They are artists in every sense of the term, really putting a part of themselves into what they are constructing. Carpenters also see their "projects" (I'll come back to that) to the end. No carpenter worth his (or her) toolbelt would ever think of leaving a project half finished. Think of a table with three legs or a door with only one hinge on it. Carpenters know that if you don't care about your work you will, invariably, produce crap.

When we come to evangelism, the vast majority of churches have misinterpreted Jesus' call to go tell the world about Him. We have focused on conversions to the exclusion of discipleship. In other words, we'll move Heaven and Earth to get someone to pray the "sinner's prayer" but then, content with the notion that they're not going to hell, we leave them to figure out life as a Christian on their own. Denominations measure their success by how many "decisions for Christ" their churches acculmated over the past year. Most churches I have come in contact with run evangelism classes fairly regularly, but ask them about whether they have any classes on discipleship and they might look at you funny.

The point is that after helped someone come to the point where they are ready to follow Christ, why would we short-circuit that by basically "orphaning" them as baby Christians? New Christians don't magically become mature Christians. God doesn't just zap them and suddenly they are reading their Bible everyday in the original Greek and Hebrew. Just like the carpenter, we have to see our work through to its finish. The goal - a fully mature Christian that can then go out and help others follow Christ. Let me say that again in case someone missed it - our goal is help people become fully mature Christians that can then in turn help others beceome fully mature Christians. The church has largely missed this point for over a thousand years. If you were fully committed to helping someone start following Christ, be just as committed in helping learn how to do so for a lifetime!

I want to end with one final point I touched on earlier. In my analogy of the carpenter, I purposely used the word "project" to bring up a crucial issue that Christians need to understand. People that don't follow Christ are not "projects" for us to convert, they are people for us to love. It is not our mandate to see how many people we can shove into some "convert-o-matic" process that churns out decisions for Christ that really don't mean anything. I have actually heard Christians say, "I don't actually care if I know anything about their life, I just want them to 'pray the prayer'." It is this kind of cold-hearted mass produced evangelism that has largely been the church's undoing for at least the last 50 years.

If evangelism is motivated by love, we will see that the fisherman, the farmer, and the carpenter will naturally characterize our demonstration of the "Good News" to the world. And if entire churches began to adopt such a "strategy of love" we would surely hear people say as they did in Jesus' time, "look how the whole world has gone after Him!"

Three Images for Evangelism (the farmer)

So in my last post, I talked about the first image that helps us understand evangelism, the fisherman. Now I wanted to talk about the second image, the farmer.

The farmer is a helpful image for evangelism, namely for his patience. The farmer understands the delicate balance between diligence and patience necessary for a seed to grow. So, with faithful regularity, the farmer waters the seed but she knows that too much poking and proding will usually do more to jeoperdize its grow than help it.

The farmers primary tool is, obviously, the seed. Our seed is the Gospel (or "Good News"). Just like the seed, the Gospel has all the potential it needs to grow inherently built into it. Christians need not "oversell" the Gospel as if we were some used car salesman trying to dupe some moron into buying a lemon. No, we should have more confidence in our message than that. The truth is that, if the Gospel is displayed and demonstrated as purely and truely as it was intended by God, it will have no problem bearing fruit. God told us in Isaiah that his Word never returns to him without accomplishing the purpose he intended for it. So, like the farmer, lets go out and diligently "plant" the Gospel in peoples' hearts and minds by demonstrating the beauty of it in our lives. Our relationships and growing friendships with those around us is the "water" the Gospel needs to grow. And if we are patient and diligent, we will in time see a harvest in the world around us.

Praise be to God for these three images! They are far to clever to have come from me alone. I am encouraged and informed by them even as I write about them - I hope you are as well. This is enough for now, I'll write more about the third images (the carpenter) soon. Till then, remember the fisher and the farmer as you live your life today.

Three Images for Evangelism (the fisherman)

Of all the concepts and terms in Christian Spirituality that get misused, abused, and misunderstood, I'd have to put my money on 'evangelism' being at the top of that list. I don't have the first delusion that I'd be able to dispell all of the misunderstanding surrounding this very volitile word but I've been thinking lately about some useful images that might help convey the true meaning of what evangelism is as best I understand it.

The images I was thinking of are the fisherman, the farmer, and the carpenter. Each of them has a method to what they do that illustrates an important point about evangelism. They each also have a primary tool that we will use as well, in a metaphorical sense. And it probably goes without saying that all I've really done is shamelessly steal images that Jesus used in his teachings 2000 years ago.

First, the fisherman. What I like about the fisherman is that he (or she) is smart enough to know that fish are not prone to simply jump into his boat without him making an effort to draw them in. The fisherman has to go where the fish are because it simply will not happen the other way around. The fisherman's primary tool is the net which he casts out and then draws back in. Whatever fish happen upon the net as its being drawn back in are drawn in with it.

Much like the fisherman, the church will starve to death if it expects the majority of people that are not yet Christian to suddenly realize their need and show up at our door. There are cases where this happens but it remains a faulty assumption. Much like a fisherman's net, we use relationship, a network of friendships, to draw people into Christian community where they can see the Gospel at work in peoples' lives.

I hope to write more before the weekend about the next two images, the farmer and the carpenter. But until then, please post your thoughts on this first image, I would really appreciate your input. This is a series of images I hope to develop into a helpful tool for teaching effective evangelism.