listening

This morning I was meeting with my staff and we were talking about a book we're going through called "Listening to God." At first it seems like it would be just another self-help thing with 7 easy steps to hearing the Lord. I've seen so many books, articles, and sermons that take that approach, and truthfully I didn't want anymore. I opened it up, read the first chapter and it blew me away. He starts by talking about his wife's slow death of cancer and how it acted as a catalyst to bring him to his knees and cry out for the Lord. He showed how suffering plays a crucial role for many people in showing them their need for God. Some people would say that this is proof that we have "made God up" to suit our needs or provide outside help for ourselves when we're hurting, but I think that it's just the opposite. God moves during this time. It's not just a conjuring up of feelings that goes on when we hurt and look for an explanation, it's an active moment of intervention in our lives on the part of God. Similar to the way that the wind blows without our doing or consent and physically affects us. Need brings about provision. Talk to the countless number of people that have spent time serving in abject poverty and ask them about the crazy ways people get their needs met. It's more tangible. We don't need the provision of God in our every day lives. We've already "provided" it all for ourselves. If we do ask God for something it's usually emotional or theoretical. How often is it a basic human need? How often do we hear his clear answer? How often do we wait until he speaks? There seems to be a connection with suffering/need and hearing the voice of the Lord. Read the Bible and see when He shows up most.

football

Right now I'm sitting on my couch and watching the undefeated Broncos lose to the winless (in their last 12 games) Chiefs. I've had to re-realize that "it's just a football game" over and over again in my life. When I sit down and watch my team play I don't want to see them lose, and as much as I would like to I don't want to see just a "good game." I want them to win and win big. It's nice to pull for a team that dominates...but seriously, how often does that happen? It sure doesn't happen with the teams that I cheer for. (check out Texas A&M for example...) I've started thinking to all the times that a team I love loses and it puts me in a bad mood. All the times that I'll yell my face off at a game, only to be dissappointed when my team get's their butt kicked. Don't get me wrong, I love sports and there is an element of it that's fun regardless of the outcome, but most of the time my heart and emotions get away from me. Maybe it's just that I'm an overly passionate person, or maybe it's normal...either way I don't like it. I feel like we can easily put the passions, interests, and hobbies ahead of the more important things in our lives. I think I can border on "worship" of these things sometimes. When all put in perspective, I realize that dudes I don't know playing catch and tackle in front of thousands of people shouldn't determine my mood. For better or for worse. I think to all the people who put their identity in things like this (sports, politics, work, cars, relationships, etc...) and I don't want to be one of them anymore. I have one God.

Know your world...

I recently found this on another friend's site and thought it was amazing. If there was ever a time to know about the Middle East it's definitely now. This is a test to see whether you know the geography of the area or not. It includes North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. I've been there twice and I still had some trouble figuring it all out...see how you do. Here's the link: http://www.rethinkingschools.org/just_fun/games/mapgame.html

Slacklining

If you could map out all the people who slackline in the world and put me and my friends somewhere on the spectrum of talent we'd fall near the back. There's so many ridiculously amazing slackliners out there (backflips) but the mere fact that there's few people who do it makes us look good. Clark and I went out on Sunday to the park on Canyon St. and set up a long one. Pretty soon we had a nice little crowd around us. Whatever works. These two high schoolers came up, broke out their bong and soon we had a nice little convention around us fascinated with our every move. They asked us what we did for a living and I told them I worked with kids at the church down the street. One of them told me he was a quaker, but didn't know what communion stood for and wanted to. We shared some Jesus with them and they listened for awhile. I ended up giving them my number and telling them (plus all the others around) to stop on by and I'd buy them lunch. Hopefully they'll come. That's how it works sometimes.

Today...

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the word "today". It should be my life theme....who knows. As people, and especially as Americans the idea of the future is drilled into us constantly. Plan ahead, be smart, go to school, get a job, set goals, etc... While all this is good to a certain degree, we get obsessed by it. When we look at our character, we can easily apply this same principle to the formation of ourselves. The thought process goes something like this: "someday I'll be a person of character...I'm going to map out how to do that right now and act as if I already am because that's what any respectable person should do." The problem with this thinking is similar to saying that I want to build a skyscraper but I can't get past thinking how awesome it's going to be someday. That's all good and fine, but the reality is there is a lot of work to do between then and now. Each individual brick, support beam, window, bathroom, air duct, and light is going to need to be constructed before it looks remotely like a finished product. This process takes a long time. It takes having to wake up every morning and get up the motivation to work hard for that day. Take this back to ourselves and the formation of our character. The same thing applies. Every morning you wake up you can make the choice on how you want to live your life and who you're going to live it for. God and other people, or ourselves? Can we patiently let the Lord work out his plan through us?

With a million stones, hard labor, and time you can build the Great Pyramids.

Tozer

"The red bloodcells are like faith: they carry the life-giving oxygen to every part of the body. The white cells are like disbelief: it pounces on the dead and toxic matter and carries it out to the drain."
-A.W. Tozer, The Root of the Righteous

Misunderstood

I was sitting in Starbucks the other day reading and a group of 10 or so high school students walked in the door and sat down at a table near me. They were talking about whatever it is that high schoolers talk about and I couldn't help but sit there and listen. Earlier, I had been thinking about the fact that whether you believed in Jesus or not, he still remains one of the most misunderstood figures in all of historical account. No other name evokes the imagery or response that JESUS does. In America, you can't walk down the street and meet someone who hasn't every heard of Jesus in some form or fashion before.

I was going to give a talk later that night to hundreds of middle school students about Jesus, and I got to thinking that it would be a good idea to ask the high school students sitting near me some questions as I was formulating what I was going to say. I got up out of my chair, went over to where they were sitting, and said: "hey guys, can I ask you some questions? I'm giving a talk to a bunch of kids tonight about Jesus, and I want to know if you were one of them, what questions would you have for me about Jesus?" At first they thought I was selling them something, but when they realized that I just wanted to know their thoughts they started opening up like crazy. I got everything from: "how much does Jesus bench press?" to "was Jesus black?" to "what WOULD Jesus do?". They asked a lot of questions about what he said, will he come back, and was he God. It's funny because all of their questions are answered in the Bible (besides the bench press question). I feel like there are more opinions floating around out there about Jesus than any other person who ever lived, but at the same time there are 4 accounts that go deep into exactly what he did. I know that people contest the authority of the Bible, but I don't think that's the real problem as to why people don't know what Jesus was all about. I think it's because we don't bother to take the time to read about him. I hear people say all the time that they don't mind Jesus, they just don't like Christians. That's unfortunate and sadly true a lot of times, but that is weak excuse to not believe what Jesus said. If it was just you and the Gospels on a desert island, I think you'd think a little differently about what Jesus is actually about.