"Prose is architecture, not interior decoration, and the Baroque is over." -Ernest Hemingway

Finishing Love Wins by Rob Bell

March 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I just finished reading Love Wins (affiliate link) by Rob Bell. I’m going to have to come back to posting my thoughts, but I will say this.

I am better for having read this book.

There were some undeniably brilliant truths in this book and he touched on many things that I think give a lot of Christians, and probably even more so, non-Christians a feeling of unease. Maybe they are supposed to makes us feel that way, but he starts the dialog all the same in a culture that, quiet frankly, isn’t generally open to questions.

There were some things that left my scratching my head and going, “what about when the Bible says this? We can’t ignore that.” Those things will require more research and probing by me and it could be that I just flat out disagree with what he says.

Most importantly though, this book challenged me to step outside of what I “knew” and make sure I really understand my faith. I’m not saying I was or wasn’t swayed by this book. I’m just saying it is a challenging book if you allow it to be and go into reading it with the attitude of wanting to understand what he’s saying rather than disproving it.

More later hopefully.

Filed Under: Faith

Being Perfect

March 19, 2011 By 1 Comment

I’ve been watching this video constantly over the past couple of weeks. It’s not been by choice as much as by chance. As I’ve been browsing my Facebook feed, I’ve noticed this video posted by several different teenagers that I know. The song, which is embedded below, is “Perfect” by Pink. This is the radio version. The explicit version is called “F@ckin’ Pefect” and uses that word in the song a few times. Whichever your poison, both versions have the same message: Don’t ever feel like you’re less than perfect. It’s a song about making bad decisions, screwing up, being mistreated, misunderstood and just not measuring up to other people’s or even your own expectations. The song is good, it’s catchy, and minus the language, and even despite it, it sends a good message to teenagers (or any of the rest of us) in a world that mostly tells us we’re not good enough.

I’ve personally been thinking about this issue a lot because I work with teenagers. Those teenagers, like most teenagers, are self-conscious and have different insecurities. Some have more than others, but they all have them. I have to constantly remind myself about that too. I’ve been fortunate to establish a close relationship with most of the teens over the past several years. My particular style of leading them is to treat them as adults and as much equal as appropriate. We make decision together. I don’t sugar coat things. I explain things to them as the rational beings that they are, or at least that they want to be. I have an amazing amount of respect for them. The thing is, I rarely tell them that. I sometimes forget that they are actually 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17.

Hearing this song, and seeing how much these teenagers relate to it, is a good reminder for me to continually focus on this. I think as adults, and particularly in ministry, we have to be careful about making others feel like they have more expectations to live up to. Yes, I want the teens to have spiritual and character growth, but my job is to encourage them and guide them down the right path when they stray, but not judge. I think we also do this as Christians a lot as well, we tell people what they “should” be doing (and it may well be things they should be doing) rather than helping them overcome the reasons they aren’t. We reinforce everything the world tells them, that they aren’t good enough. Yes, we may teach and throw out Jeremiah 1:5 that says, “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations” (NLT), or Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope” (NLT). We tell people that they’re perfect because “God don’t make no junk.” But I wonder how much we actually show people this?

I’m guilty of it. I don’t consider myself overly critical, but I remind myself that teenagers are overly sensitive. We all probably are, so I’ve made it my goal to remind myself to not only tell people but actually show them how perfect they really are.

Filed Under: Faith, Featured, Pop Culture

Boogeymen and Ordinariness of Death

February 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

“Death is terrifying because it is so ordinary. It happens all the time.” -Susan Cheever

If I had read this quote a year ago, or even six months ago, it would not have made sense to me. I mean, don’t get me wrong, the thought of death has always been scary, but death itself had never been real. It was like the boogey-man. The thought of one is scary, but knowing that he’s not real makes it less scary. That’s what death was like for me–not real (mostly), and definitely not ordinary.

But I’ve learned that it is. I don’t know if I’ve just experienced it more in the past year, or if I’m just more aware and sensitive to it, but death is very real and very ordinary. I don’t like it. I suppose no one likes it.

I just feel like until this past year, I’ve been sheltered from it. Sure, I’ve lost a few people I knew and some great-grandparents that I was close with. Yes, those times sucked and made me sad. But those times, mostly, were expected. I was prepared mentally to deal with it.

I also never thought much about heaven until my mom died. That may sound weird for a Christian, but I just figured I’d get there when I get there and God would have it all worked out. I figured it would be this wonderful place, but for the most part, life on earth was pretty wonderful too. I didn’t care about the details and was in no hurry to get there. Then suddenly, after mom died, I felt this deep longing to be there. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t want to die to be there, but all of a sudden the urgency of being there with her seemed much greater. Life on earth didn’t seem all that pressing or all that wonderful and I was ready for Jesus to pop back down and take us away.

I still haven’t figured out how someone is supposed to deal with death. I can’t imagine the pain ever going away. Part of me doesn’t want it to go away. But it does give you this unique experience, particularly with a parent, I’d imagine with a child also, that you don’t have with anyone except someone who has gone through it. A number of people I know have lost parents this year. My co-worker just lost both parents in a matter of weeks of each other. What I have now is this unique knowledge that I actually know how they are feeling, generally speaking. It’s a feeling I’ve never really been able to compare to anything else. It’s this missing piece inside and knowledge that there is absolutely nothing I can say that is going to help. You say it anyway, but you know it’s not comforting. And every single time it’s happened since October (and it’s been frequent), I get that same punch in the stomach that I did when the doctors said, “I’m sorry for your loss.” I imagine that person getting that same punch.

So, ordinary? Perhaps.

Real? Definitely.

Terrifying? Yes–more than the boogey man.

Filed Under: Faith, My Life

Letting Ourselves Cry

November 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

never stop cryingvia The Ongoing Adventures of ASBO Jesus

I posted this along time ago here, but came across it again tonight. It kind of sums up how I’ve been feeling. In reality, it sums up how I almost always feel; how most of us probably feel a lot of the time. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve cried. I’ve cried a lot. I think I’ve cried every day since my mom died. Sometimes it’s worse than others. But it is usually something that just comes. I rarely “let” myself cry. Is it just me, or are we just automatically trained to hold back our tears?

Is it because we’re afraid we won’t stop?

Filed Under: Faith

Freedom of Religion: Why We All Get It Wrong

August 28, 2010 By 2 Comments

Constitution of the United States and Feather Quill

The concept of freedom of religion is one of those topics that seem to push every hot button in every single person that has an opinion on the matter. I know that it does in me. So I’ve had these thoughts just floating around in my head for a while and felt inspired this morning to put them on paper (or in this case, in the blog).

Let me start with the US Constitution and the idea behind “Freedom of Religion”.

Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Faith

I Am Tiger Woods

December 13, 2009 By Leave a Comment

tiger-woodsTiger Woods. I’ve read the news. I’ve watched the interviews with his alleged mistresses. I’ve heard the jokes (some pretty funny ones I might add). I wouldn’t say I’ve been following the story, but in general, I’m pretty up-to-date on current events as I read Google News and my feed reader several times a day. You would pretty much have to be living under a rock to not know that something bad was going on with Tiger.

Here’s the thing though. I know that I should be disgusted by his behavior. I should think he’s a total scumbag. And I do think that his behavior was disgusting. It makes me sad for him, his wife, his kids and everyone around him who is having to deal with the consequences of his choices. However, I don’t feel the outrage that everyone else seems to be having or even that I think I should have.

Part of that is that I don’t think what he did was so abnormal for a sports celebrity (especially at his level). I think he’s getting more heat because we’ve always seen him as a “good guy” and because he’s managed to protect his privacy more than any other sports star that I know.

But the other reason is this: We all have a Tiger Woods in us.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Faith, In The News, My Life, Pop Culture, Sports Tagged With: , , , , ,

Amazing Kids

April 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment

This has been a hard week. I’ve been from one extreme to the other. I started the week feeling discouraged about a few things, things that made me want to just get far away from here for a while or longer. Then yesterday I got some bad news about something going on in the lives of two of the teens in my group who are brothers. It was news that just broke my heart for them and their family. I spent some time last night with them and their sisters and spent today working on some things for them. As I was getting ready for our Thursday teen group, I got some more bad news about a lady at church. While others were helping her deal with that, I was asked to keep an eye on her daughter. It worked well because our teen group wasn’t a typical night. We had some younger girls there (sisters of the two brothers), so it worked out well since this kid was their age.

When I walked into the room with this young girl, thinking about the sad news her mom was going to be sharing with her very soon and how she was still clueless, I looked around the room. I looked at this girl. I looked at the other family of siblings dealing with their family crisis. I looked at their friends who were hurting for them, and my heart just broke into pieces. I knew that there was so much pain and hurt going on in that room at that moment. It humbled me. It reminded me of how blessed and priviledged I am that I get to share in that with them. That, even though I know I can’t take away their hurt, they know I’m there and they look to me for answers.

It scared me actually for a few minutes until we sat down to eat. We sat down like a family. We prayed for each other, and then as we were eating, we started going around the room talking about our day. And you know what? Not one person had anything bad to say. They had fun at school. They won medals. They hung out with their grandma. They didn’t get any referrals at school (detention). Just simple little things in the midst of things that will ultimately be life changing for their families, at least for a while.

And I realized that they get it (the teenagers at least). They get that life is hard, but they have put their trust in Jesus. They are thankful for what didn’t happen. They are innocent and loving and completely faithful in knowing that God is a wonderful and powerful creator who can do anything. They are pretty amazing kids.

Filed Under: Faith

Best of Linkage #1

March 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment

The funniest thing you will see all week. Or at least today. I promise!

Sleep walking dog

One thing I really like about Twitter.

I think is really illustrates the positive ways and power of technology. I really wish churches and Christians would use it even more than we do for stuff like this, instead of a soapbox for condemning the world.

“Say a prayer 4 my boy logan. we met through ‘make a wish.’ (heart transplant) he’s having a tough go at it rt now,” (Ashton) Kutcher (@aplusk) tweeted (translation: he typed it on the Web site) at 12:31 a.m. Sunday.

Within one hour, about 275 people dropped a line to Logan Laack, a 19-year-old from Plymouth who is in critical condition at the hospital. He had a heart transplant in 2005 and returned to the hospital last month because of complications.

via Ashton, Demi fans atwitter about Logan – JSOnline.

South San Francisco Salvation Army Corps

Thinking outside the box. I love this.

Filed Under: Faith, In The News, Pop Culture Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

George W. Bush can be blamed on one man: Bud Selig

February 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment

A few months back I read this article, or one similar to it. It basically gives me my basis for claiming that everything is Bud Selig’s fault. The War. The economy. Job losses. Mortgage crisis. Eight years of George W. Bush.

Here is the rundown.

Back in 1994, Bud Selig, then owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, was the acting commissioner of Major League Baseball after the owners had ousted Fay Vincent in 1992. It was thought that the owners were going to find a permanent commissioner and George W. Bush, then an owner of the Texas Rangers, was a potential candidate. As reported in Sheehy’s column (2000 Vanity Fair Article), Bush wanted to be the commissioner of baseball more than anything else in his life, and when he was approached by Texas Republicans about running for governor, he initially put them off, thinking that he was in line to become the commissioner.

But alas, Bud Selig had other plans. He kept the job for himself after a six year search.

Just think how things could’ve been if not for this man. We know Bush would’ve cracked down on the steroids much sooner than Selig. He could’ve hunted them down! Al Gore might have been President, or at least anyone else that could have been better. See, I think W. would have made an excellent Baseball Commissioner. How much more likeable would he have been to the world? But no, the selfishness of one man led to the where we’re at today. And no one can say that is a good thing. Perhaps, if Selig had made Bush Baseball Commissioner, we might actually be able to afford to take our families to the Great American Pastime game.

Filed Under: Faith, In The News, Sports Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Tug of War

February 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past week (or just simply don’t read entertainment headlines), you’ve no doubt heard about the Chris Brown & Rihanna fiasco. Long story short, they are both singers/R&B stars, dating and he allegedly beat her up the morning before the Grammy Awards. What makes it a little more unique and shocking to most people is that Chris Brown has always had a reputation of being a “nice guy.” People have always talked about his class and how he’s set himself apart from a lot of negativity that goes along with that particular business. I don’t listen to a lot of R&B, but even I had a level of respect for Chris Brown and enjoy his music.

So here is why I’m actually doing a blog post about this. It scares the crap out of me. I sit week after week listening to the teens talks about Chris Brown and how much they (the girls) love him. They look up to him and not just him, but all of those people. And unfortunately, like others, they are having a hard time accepting that this might have went down the way it seems to have. The first thing out of the of the teen girls mouth this week was “She (Rihanna) deserved it.”

I was floored and shocked yet again. So we went on to talk about how it really didn’t matter what she had done, unless perhaps he was acting in self-defense and there seems to be no indication of that. No one, girl or guy, deserves that.

Perhaps the most distrubing part was the fact that it just seemed normal. They weren’t shocked by it. They weren’t outraged. They defended the alleged attacker. Even though everyone of them realize violence is wrong and statistically, some of them have probably witnessed it, they still had this casual attitude about it. It just scared me for both the girls and the guys. The girls that they would actually find that in any way acceptable in a relationship, and the guys that again, they would find that acceptable behavior and not care about respect for their partner.

Now, I’m in no way saying that any of my teens would sit and say that they would ever be okay with it, but when they are just so casual about it, it makes me nervous that they don’t actually put enough thought into what is acceptable and what isn’t in a relationship. Sure they’re teenagers, but Chris Brown and Rihanna are just barely out of their teen years.

Anyway, it just distrurbed me and is yet another example of why I’m constantly worried about the cultrure in which our teens are growing up in today. It also makes me question how well I’m doing in helping them find some sort of focus on the good things and their relationship with Christ to get them through the murk.

I just sometimes feel like I’m playing tug of war with the world and my kids are stuck in the middle.

Filed Under: Faith, In The News, Pop Culture