Give up being a saint.  It'll be a lot better for everyone.  

We have all known that person who is always right on moral matters and leaves no room in their mind for the possibility of error.  If we buy into their charade we too might begin to believe that true life is a matter of wearing the right things, saying the right things, making sure we do all the do's and don't all the don'ts.  This is the person who sucks all the joy out of a party because there was a curse word in a song playing in the background.  I know this person well because I use to be a person like this and still find myself creeping backwards into thinking that I can pull myself up by my moral bootstraps and make myself acceptible to God... until my bootstraps snap and the clothes i've worked so hard to get the stains out of get soiled with my own filth (there's an image for you).  

The beautiful thing is that the right way, the way that Jesus called us to has nothing to do with our adherence to rules, or our capacity to keep a clean track record.  It has everything to do with humility, something which many a Christian have long forgotten.  But we find humility's high calling throughout all of scripture.  David said it in Psalm 51, 'God you will not turn a broken and contrite spirit away'.  Micah said it when he wrote, "What does God require?  To do justice, to love mercy, and to walk... humbly with your God".  Peter said, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble".   We look at Mary Magdalene, the thief on the cross, the syro-phoenecian woman, and see that Jesus could not resist the humble.  So, it's time to count all our super-spiritual, ego-inflating, moralistic, ecclesial jerking around for what it is... poo.  Yep, i would probably use another word for it if there wasn't a permanent record on this blog.  In Philippians 3 Paul says all the junk he thought made a good person should be counted as, in the KJV, rubbish... that's greek for poo - exegete that Bible scholar.  

It's time we realize the depth of the cross in our own lives... it's not that we made Christ die on the cross - we didn't even care.  We were oblivious, and yet he loves us still.  And so when we begin trying to pretty ourselves up we are pretty much saying, "wow, a cross, that's great Jesus... but i got it covered - thanks, but no thanks."  And so we take the greatest gift of grace and freedom and ask God if he saved the receipt because we want to take it back and get what we think we need... some decorations for our poo.  

So to really become humble is a gift directly tied to accepting the magnitude of grace given freely by God.  It is that grace that lets us see those we once despised and avoided through the eyes of Jesus and offer them grace, love, and acceptance as well.  It is that grace that lets us willingly without compulsion take last place.  And the benefit?  Well when we get in last place like Jesus asked us to, we won't be surprised when others put us there.   

 

-This post was inspired by Brennan Manning's 'The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus' 

Posted In: spirituality life

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I see Yes.

I see a light on the horizon.

I see what could be -

What should be -

An explosion of life

in the blackhole of death,

A Kingdom amidst the nations.

When death pulls me down

By its weight in my heart and in my hands

When darkness surrounds me

When all around me is "No!"

I see Yes.

Shaking the foundations of this world

Tearing a curtain to the bottom from the top

Screaming, Yes.

Bleeding, Yes.

Dying, Yes.

Rising -

Yes.  This is He who battles for His bride

so that she might be adorned with desperation for him

and the deeds of righteousness.

Posted In: life poetry

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For the last 3 years I have only been in Wal-Mart to help a friend get something, redeem a gift card, or try and take something back there.  You can read previous posts to find out why I have an aversion to the store for its business practices.  However, over the holidays I heard that a lawsuit was won by the common folk and Wal-Mart was going to pay employees back-pay which it had been keeping back by doing things like making people work through lunch breaks and not paying them for it.  So, I decided I would not withold my dollar any longer since the store was doing justly (even if it was forced) and we proceeded to go to the mega-mall of stuff today to get Morgan a surprise and pick up our groceries.  Now, if you haven't been to Wal-Mart extensively in 3 years and you jump right back into it you need to be warned that there is a certain amount of sensory overload.  Sarah described it best by saying it was like we were in a fog surrounded by all this stuff.  I found myself wandering around simply looking for things to buy and dodging other customers who were, like ourselves, hurridely scrounging around to find the next thing they didn't know they needed.  As we were in the check out lane Sarah gave me the go ahead to get the car... relief.  As I rushed out of the store to get a breath of fresh air from the drowning waves of consumerism I passed someone I knew and he too was walking around in a daze.  As we left the parking lot Sarah and I vowed to return to Kroger and Food City as our primary grocers.  Don't believe the ads, 'save money, live better'.  Our grocery bill at Wal-mart was more expensive than what we usually pay at Kroger.  True, there are some things that they have better deals on, but overall it is as expensive if not more so than chain grocery stores... Anyways, that is my rant for the year... what a great way to start off blogging in 2009!  Happy New Years!

Posted In: life

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If you and I fall into the same blogging category then you will know how I feel when I say I have a chronic case of blogging constipation.  I have great blog ideas sometimes but I never have enough time to type them out or I am never around a computer when I have them.  And when I finally get enough time around a computer I feel very uninspired except occasionally I will have somthing burning on my heart, or I will write a 'debbie-downer'  or an 'i am sucha a horrible blogger' post like this one is turning out to be.  However, this post still has room for redemption.  The real reason I am writing is to have some self-disclosure.  There has been alot of meaningful things happen in my life recently that I wish I could summarize and publish on here, but there was one in particular that I hope to publish something on soon, namely, Catalyst Conference.  But one of the things that happens when you go to a conference like that with tons of great speakers and leaders is that you get some great wisdom for leading churches.  However, what I seem to do with all that good info is twist it around and make myself puffed up with it.  I believe it is something about being human that makes people want to set themselves above others.  It is something I have to constantly have to keep myself in check about.  I can so easily see it in other Christians when they poopoo churches for doing new and innovative things, but which new and innovative churches can fall into doing as well if their cynicism about traditional churches isn't transformed to brokeness.  

I preached a message recently on anger and in preparing for it I realized something new.  I have, like many others, realized that some anger can be leveraged for good.  Jesus became angry multiple times in the Bible in the presence of injustice.  And while there is that anger that more naturally directs us toward sinning, I believe that this 'righteous' anger directs us toward sin, yet in subtle, more acceptable ways.   While Jesus became angry, he never held onto his anger.  His anger changed from merely loathing the situation to grieving over it.  His heart changed from that initial neutral state of anger to a spiritual grieving over the brokeness of his people (Mark 3).  If we simply get angry at the ineffectiveness or irrelevance of traditional churches we will soon end up as cynical, grumpy, progressive Christians.   We must constantly be praying for a broken heart over the people who don't know Christ as well as His church that so often collectively takes his name in vain.

Posted In: church life

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There are times when I feel so overwhelmed that by the time I sit down to pray I don't know where to start.  And I have this feeling that to God I must sound like a spiritual toilet being flushed - I don't have to explain the imagery on that one.  But really - sometimes I start thinking of all the things that I need God's help in and realize there really isn't enough hours in the day to pray for all of them.  So I end up mentioning as many of them to God as I can and crying, "Lord Help Me!"  I kinda feel unspiritual when I do that - I mean, we are supposed to have really intelligent and meaningful prayers with God right?  Well, maybe sometimes, but when did we get the idea that God gives a crap about the wittiness or craftiness of our prayers?  I know my God is big enough to handle all the stuff in my life without me having to have good English in my prayers.  At the end of the day he is looking for trust, not overblown prose - thank God.  

 

When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.  

-Matt 6:7-8

Posted In: spirituality life

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I can't believe Pax is almost 5 months old now.  It is incredible to watch him interact with people and see his whole body squirm when he smiles.  It won't be long until he is walking.  He hasn't really got the crawling thing yet - he scoots around a lot with his head on the ground, but he can pull himself up and stand.  It seems like he was born yesterday and time has flown by.  I am sitting here watching the Democratic National Convention (note: I am not a democrat or republican) and listening to Joe Biden's acceptance speech.  I don't know much about Biden, but his son introduced him and testified of his father's selfless love for his family - how he turned down the senate because his sons were in the hospital, how he made the 4 hour round trip to Washington and back to Delaware every day so he could be a father to his children.  

I want to be the type of father that doesn't pursue the position of influence to do good, but rather pursues to be present and use the influence inherent in fatherhood to show my love for Morgan and Pax.  So far the pursuit of that has had many detours, but every mile makes the destination clearer and more urgent.

Posted In: life baby

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We are getting ready to do some exciting things this Fall through Fairview.  Most likely we will be renting out the old Capitol Theater in downtown Maryville and having a rockin' college and young adult service on Sunday nights.  We are planning on pulling out all the stops and doing the best possible thing we can do for this service. I am pumped and have been losing sleep over it.  We have a long way to go in a short amount of time so please be praying for us.  We are applying for some grants to help us get it off the ground and we still need to come up with a name.  If you have any suggestions leave them in a comment.  Remember - catchy yet refined... I am thinking, "New City".  

Posted In: church life

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• 6% of the population – 40% of world’s resources
• 8% of the world has a car. 92% doesn’t – We are rich
• 1 billion people don’t have clean water
• 800,000,000 people won’t eat today
• Think about how much money is in your wallet or in your car… 1 billion people live on less than $1 day
• To provide water, health and nutrition for all those who need it would cost $20 billion = amount Americans spend on ice cream in one year.
• If the church in America tithed we would be able to feed and educate everyone with 50-70 billion dollars left to advance the gospel.

• Buy things for their usefulness rather than status (cars, house, etc)
• Clothes – most people do not need any more clothes (As for apparel I buy the most lasting and in general the plainest I can.  I buy no furniture but what is necessary and cheap).
• Reject things that tempt you with addiction:  foods, drinks, medicines, media, TV… Refuse to be a slave to anything but God.
• Develop a habit of giving things away
• Resist ‘time-saving’ gadgets and the lure of our advertising culture
• Enjoy things without owning them
• Develop a deeper appreciation for creation
• Develop simple speech
• Reject anything that breeds the oppression of others
• Shun anything that distracts you from seeking God’s Kingdom

Posted In: sermon life

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As I was tucking Morgan into bed tonight I told her the story of David and Goliath.  I made sure that Morgan knew that Goliath was bad and David was little but God was going to protect him and use him.  And as I was wrapping up what I thought was a brilliant job of making an OT story theologically understandable to a three-year old when she looked at me square in the eyes and said, "yeah, but God loves Goliath."

I had no clue what to say after that.  Kids have a better grasp on things than we think sometimes.  Morgan wasn't silent very long though.  She continued to tell me that Goliath and her had a fun day tat the park and he likes sausage!   

Posted In: life

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It is day 10 of our trip and things are beginning to wind down.  The effects of being away from family and not really having any rest are beginning to show.  Today wasn't all that exciting.  We did visit an orphanage for about an hour, but then went and had lunch at a nursing home.  We were expecting to be working more with the poor in the flavellas.  We are hoping tomorrow is more hands on.  It feels like a month since we left.  One thing I have to say is that Brazilian hospitality cannot be beat.  Every restaraunt we go to insists on giving us ungodly amounts of red meat.  And we aren't staying at the Hilton, but when you ask for coffee (or cafe as they say in Portuguese) they literally bring it out on a silver platter.  However, laundry costs an arm and a leg.  To get one shirt washed it costs about $3.  So right now my shorts and underwear are hanging outside our bathroom window drying off after I washed them in the sink. 

It is about 1:00am right now and I am still wide awake because I have had about 4 cups of the strongest coffee in the world.  Brazilian coffee is incredibly intense... and good.  I am an addict now.  The only way I can describe it is as if you added 2 cups of raw coffee grounds to a teaspoon of water and heated it up in the microwave. 

More tomorrow....

Posted In: brazil life

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