"There Wasn't Any Drama"

This was the reason given by someone why last week's FIRE & WATER Winter Retreat was the best one they had been on.

Now on the surface, that can seem really petty small. In a weekend away with God and people trying to get to know Him better, the absence of girls and boys acting stupid about dating and relationships doesn't seem like a big thing. But in reality, it is.

So many things are tied up in our understanding and view of God. How we act, how others act, how we feel at the time, the amount of sleep we are getting, even if someone said hello to me can seem really small but in many ways it can make a difference in our experience with God today.

That's why we need to be doing what Pastor Kevin said on Sunday, be living lives of worship all the time, even in the little things. Because if we live a life that all-encompasses what it means to be a disciple of Christ, even down to the little things, not only will we have an easier time seeing God but others will have an easier time seeing God in us.

Ditch the drama, stay with Papa.

T

Done Resolutions

It's been a week, how many resolutions are already gone?

Don't make resolutions, make changes. There's a big difference.

If you want to know God better this year, don't resolve to do it. Make changes in your life that will allow you to do it.

T

Letting Go

Last week FIRE & WATER's Mystery Adventure was ice skating. We've been talking about going for a while and on this day we hit the ice. Sometimes literally.

For two students, that was a real fear. They has never been ice skating before. Being Canadian, it's something I've done all my life and have no problem explaining to others. But there is one fundamental issue everyone has to overcome, and these two students were polar opposites.

The biggest hurdle you have to overcome: Let go of the boards.

That wall is safety. Away is danger, falling, cold, even pain. So people hold on to the boards. The problem is, you can't skate holding onto the boards. You have to let go. One student, no problem. They were covered in ice and snow, their legs wet, for a while they fell every two steps. By the end of the day they were nowhere near a pro, but they were much better and even had a little bit of speed in their stride. The other student, it took a lot more to get them away from the wall. I may have taken them by the hand, dragged them out and let them go...

But isn't that what it's like with Jesus? We hear all the analogies of stepping out of the boat. We can't truly follow Jesus and be His disciple and still hold onto our safety rails, whatever they may be. And it may hurt, and we may fall. But Jesus is okay with that, if He wasn't He wouldn't be the one to drag us out and let go.

The only way to skate is to let go of the boards. The only way to follow Jesus is to let go of whatever it is that you're holding onto instead of Him...

T

The Baby Is Born... Now What?

Christmas has happened! There was lots of food and presents and fun was had by all.

Now what?

For most it will be a return to normalcy. Take down the lights, stop listening to Christmas music, and once the leftovers are gone we will be eating the same food we did before. Ornaments are packed away. The greeting of "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays" is no longer used. In a few days there will be no trace the Christmas ever happened aside from a few new toys.

Is that really how it should be?

I'm not saying leave your lights up all year round (although I know a few who do), but spiritually I don't think Christ came and died as a one time shot and then be done with it. I also don't think the point of church is to come be a Christ follower for one hour a week on Sunday and once we're done being holy go back to our normal selves by Monday (or by halftime).

What if spiritually we acted like it was Christmas all the time? Act as if Christ is with us? Live with that type of faith? What if we live like Christmas was real well past the 25th...?

Just a thought.

T

Everything Was A Choice

For Advent this year I am reading a sermon series by St. Bernard. It's fun to see a story I knwo so well from a different point of view.

One difference he made was the choices made by Christ at Christmas. I had never really thought about it, but God is very intentional. Nothing is done by accident. Every little tiny thing has meaning. Unlike all of us, Christ was able to determine how and when He was born. If this is true that means that He picked every part of His birth on purpose.

Jesus chose to be born during a census (it gets Him to Bethlehem).
Jesus chose to have Mary be pregnant while traveling.
Jesus chose to be born in a stable.
Jesus chose to be born at night.
Jesus chose that only shepherds would see the angels announcement.

You get the idea. Every single part of Christ's birth was done by choice. I wonder if because we don't get any say in how we or our children our born we assume it's the same with God, but it's not. He chose every little detail of His birth.

The bigger question is, what do those choices tell us about Jesus?

Think about it. Merry Christmas.

T

"Done Unto Me"

I read a very interesting quote last week from the Advent Sermons of St. Bernard. He says this:

"Be it done unto me, not preached to me, not shown to me but breathed into me."

Maybe the reason Jesus doesn't seem real to so many people, maybe even ourselves, is because we've settled for for preaching and showing, we haven't dove into the Spirit of God being "breathed into me" or "done unto me."

If you really want people to know that Christ loves them this Holiday Season (and beyond) don't just talk and show or point to other places to find Jesus. Be Christ to them. Love them. Sacrifice for them.

God wasn't content to use prophets to tell people He loved them, He became flesh and entered their lives. Will you do the same?

T

"We're not aiming for the truck"

This is one of my favorite movie lines of all time. I got to watch it this weekend as we try to expand our daughter's movie tastes beyond Frozen and the Muppets.

It's from Toy Story, most of the movie is about two toys trying to get back to their owner, a boy named Andy. And after overcoming obstacle after obstacle they are finally making it back, headed right for the moving truck. After all, that's what they should be aiming for.

The truck's back door is open, it's easy to hit.
The truck is closest to them.
The truck has all the other toys in it.
The truck has been their goal all along.

Until "we're not aiming for the truck."

One of the toys isn't aiming for the safety of the truck. They're aiming for Andy. They're goal isn't to get to the easy win, they want to be with the child who loves them. It's further, it's harder, and it's a complete surprise because it's completely unexpected. No one would try for that.

But they did.

How often do we settle for something easier than the One who loves us? He's in the car ahead, He's harder to get to, the window to reach Him is smaller. Instead we go to the safer zone, the one with all the other toys. It takes a lot less work and we're with all the other toys so why bother going for the car?

Because HE is in the car.

I don't know about you, but that's where I'd rather be...

T

(P.S. Happy Birthday Dad!)

The Real Power

I was reading this the other day:

Understand that the last days will be dangerous times. People will be selfish and love money. They will be the kind of people who brag and who are proud. They will slander others, and they will be disobedient to their parents. They will be ungrateful, unholy, unloving, contrary, and critical. They will be without self-control and brutal, and they won’t love what is good. They will be people who are disloyal, reckless, and conceited. They will love pleasure instead of loving God. They will look like they are religious but deny God’s power. Avoid people like this. ~ II Timothy 3:1-5 (CEB)

My first thought was to look at our world, the society I live in and compare. Are we selfish? Are we proud? Are we all these other things? That is until the last verse caused me to do a 180 on who I was looking at.

Do I simply look religious but am denying God's true power?

That's the whole purpose of Advent, remembering the true power of God that came into this world, and remembering that we are subject to the Son, that He has to be our everything or else it all means nothing.

It's a hard mirror to look into, but are you willing to? Does our faith have the True Power or do we simply look religious? That's a hard question to look at...

Happy Advent.

T

Giving Thanks

Do you ever think about that phrase? That thanks is something we actually give?

Giving requires effort and thought. It's rarely done by accident. It's purposeful. It is a sacrifice of some sort, I had it now I give it to you. Giving brings the focus off of me and on to the recipient of the gift.

I hope this week you will "give" thanks.

And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. ~ Colossians 3:17 (NLT)

Happy Thanksgiving.

T

When It's Expected.

Last week I copied Seth Godin's blog about how when we expect something we fell entitled to it. Today I want to look at the reverse.

What happened in Paris over the weekend was shocking. Appalling. Horrific. And yet I have seen a lot of posts floating around the internet asking why Paris got all the news and the bombing in Baghdad did not, or the earthquake in Mexico, or ______ horrible tragedy.

And I've seen lots of reasons. Because Paris is white. Because they're an American ally. Because it's a first world nation. But I have a different theory.

Because it was unexpected.

This is a hard truth to face, but let's be honest. We expect turmoil in the Middle East, we expect war and bombs and because of that we don't see it as "news". We expect earthquakes to happen all over the world so when we hear about one it's "another earthquake." What we didn't expect was a suicide bomber to go to a football match in Paris after shooting up a restaurant, or another to go to a concert and start killing.

But here's the real danger, and it shows in our reaction. We become home-blind to the expected. If we had never ever seen a homeless person and for only once in our lives we saw someone standing on the side of the road with a sign asking for money so they could get home wouldn't we be shocked and want to help them? But after seeing hundreds of them and hearing the stories, how much are we stirred to dig into our pockets to help? Just because this is the 100th person we've seen doesn't make their story any less tragic or them any less in need of help, but we've almost become numb to it because we pretty much expect it now. So we do less, or nothing.

How many ways in our lives have we become numb to what we expect so we do nothing?
Everyone knows about Jesus or the one's I've told said "no" so I stop sharing the gospel.
I give to food pantries but there are still hungry people so what difference will my gift make.
I've invited this family member to Thanksgiving every year and they never show so I stop inviting.
My prayers seem to go unanswered so I stop praying.

We can't give up, especially when the failure/horror/tragedy is expected.

T

Entitlement vs. Worthiness - Seth Godin

I know this is a little after Halloween, but I read this and thought this is the perfect embodiment of what entitlement is and how it causes us to act. Thanks to Seth Godin for writing something so brilliant (he has lots of brilliance, you should see his blog).

T

Entitlement is the joy killer.

Halloween is hardly what it could be. Any other day of the year, hand a kid a chocolate bar and he'll be thrilled. Do it on Halloween and it's worth almost nothing.

When you receive something you feel entitled to, something expected, that you believe you've earned, it's not worth much. And when you don't receive it, you're furious. After all, it's yours. Already yours. And you didn't get it. Whether you're wearing a hobo costume or showing up as a surgeon after years of medical school, entitlement guarantees that you won't get what you need.

Worthiness, on the other hand, is an essential part of receiving anything.

When you feel unworthy, any kind response, positive feedback or reward feels like a trick, a scam, the luck of the draw. It's hardly worth anything, because you decided in advance, before you got the feedback, that you weren't worthy.

It's possible to feel worthy without feeling entitled. Humility and worthiness have nothing at all to do with defending our territory. We don't have to feel like a fraud to also be gracious, open or humble.

Both entitlement and unworthiness are the work of the resistance. The twin narratives make us bitter, encourage us to be ungenerous, keep us stuck. Divas are divas because they've tricked themselves into believing both narratives--that they're not getting what they're entitled to, and, perversely, that they're not worth what they're getting.

The entitled yet frightened voice says, "What's the point of contributing if those people aren't going to appreciate it sufficiently?" And the defensive unworthy voice says, "What's the point of shipping the work if I don't think I'm worthy of being paid attention to..."

The universe, it turns out, owes each of us very little indeed. Hard work and the dangerous commitment to doing something that matters doesn't get us a guaranteed wheelbarrow of prizes... but what it does do is help us understand our worth. That worth, over time, can become an obligation, the chance to do our best work and to contribute to communities we care about.

When the work is worth it, make more of it, because you can, and because you're generous enough to share it.

"I'm not worthy," isn't a useful way to respond to success. And neither is, "that's it?"

It might be better if we were just a bit better at saying, "thank you."

Focus

Have you ever had someone give you a generic request that embodies everything and you have no idea where to go with it?

"What do you want for dinner?"
"Food."

Great. Thanks for narrowing that down. Where do I go from here? Frustrating, isn't it?

Is that how you pray?

When you talk to God are you specific in what you would like or do you pray the generic "bless ____"? Bless how? Yes, God makes the final decision, but maybe part of the reason talking with Him is so hard is because we're giving such over-arching, covering everything in three words prayers that God isn't able to answer our request because there actually isn't a request in there.

Even in the most obvious of situations, Jesus asked for specifics. In Mark 10 a blind man stands before Him and Jesus asks, "What would you like me to do?" Why would Jesus ask? What does that tell us about what Jesus wants from us in our requests?

Try it for a few weeks. Be honest with God. Be specific. See what happens.

T

Fast Acting Relief

We live in a society where we are stressed out, sick, troubled, tired, all sorts of things just weighing us down. And we want these pressures to stop, but we want them all to stop now. There are millions of quick fixes to all these problems, they usually only last a short time or don't work at all and so we jump to the next one or take more and more of whatever it is to help us.

Last week I found this quote by comedian Lily Tomlin:

"For fast-acting relief, try slowing down."

It's probably the simplest and at the same time hardest thing to do, but you'll be surprised how well it works. I also read (and can't find, sorry) someone mentioning that the biggest weapon in satan's arsenal at the moment is hurry, if we can keep ourselves so stressed out and rushing around we won't have time for all God has for us.

Relationships take time, they're slow. Our relationship with Jesus is no different. Want to feel better? Want Jesus to be more real in your life? Try slowing down.

T 

"There's Explaining And There's Showing"

A little while ago Lorie and I finally got around to watching the latest Hunger Games movie. We wait until we get to see it for free on TV.

But I wrote down this quote from the beginning of the movie. Katniss isn't "all in" for the war that's coming and one of the superiors suggests taking Katniss to her home so she can see what was done. It had been destroyed, and she had heard the stories about its destruction, but she needed a little nudge to join the fight. And that's where this line came in.

There's explaining and there's showing.

Here's my question, how many of us are explaining our faith? We tell what we believe, we talk about it, and we don't understand why the love of Jesus falls on deaf ears. Maybe it's because there's a difference between explaining and showing. What if you instead of explaining Christ to those you want to share Him with you showed them Christ? Serving them, loving them, giving to them expecting nothing in return.

We as the Church really need to stop explaining and start showing.

T

Jumping To Conclusions

Part of our ability as human beings to learn and grow is taking information and transforming it into something tangible. Information - when I stick my finger in this light socket electricity comes out + electricity hurts = don't stick your finger in the light socket. Pretty basic stuff.

What always amazes me though is how often we take a little bit of information and jump to a conclusion that is way off, sometimes not true at all. A perfect example happened today at NASA. Because we all want to believe we are not alone in the universe so much it takes very little for us to jump to that conclusion.

I want to point out though, NASA, the people who found the information, dissected it and explained it did not jump to that conclusion. They found evidence the ridges on Mars were likely carved out by a briny water of some sort. That's all they said. However, the very first reporter to ask a question: "Does this mean there's life on Mars?"

Generally if someone has to work for the information more they respect it, they look at it, the read it completely, they get a different result than if they just Googled it. We've all seen it, look it up online, forget it and don't care anymore.

So then, if we truly want someone to know God and be loved by Him, do you think it's better to share the information and move on, or give them something to wrestle with?

Btw, still no aliens.

T

Leaving Early

There is something I will never understand about people at sporting events...

When they leave early.

You never know what will happen. Basically, you as a fan have given up (even though you're not even playing). You have told the team you have lost faith. You have decided their fate is sealed and the game is done. Even though it isn't.

I still remember my pastor from the first church I interned at, he took me to a football game (he was a nice guy). It was a Sunday afternoon, we had church in the morning and church in the evening. It was a tight squeeze. And with not too long before the evening service the home team was down. He made the call it was time to go because there was no way we'd come back.

As a kid who had to travel 3 hours to see a professional team play, I couldn't fathom that. It was a greater sacrifice to see the game for me growing up so we stayed, no matter what. We sat through rain delays, 9 run innings by the visiting team, anything because it was a huge commitment to make it to the game. Unlike this pastor, who lived in town and saw games all the time.

The craziness was, on the way to the car in the parking lot some tailgaters had the game on. While walking, the home team scored a touchdown. He said, "we're going back" and we ran back inside to see our team eventually win. We almost missed it because he had given up (he just didn't give up early enough, thank goodness).

Those are the games we talk about too, the big win after everyone thought it was done. That's when the most magical moments in sports seem to happen. And yet, how many times do we miss magical moments, not just in sports, but in life, in faith, because we gave up too soon?

(As I was writing this, all I could think about was the show "The Goldberg's" when the dad wants to leave a hockey game early because the game was "over". He was right, it was over, the home team was wining and would win, but they missed this happening: http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?id=190549)

Don't leave early. Keep the faith.

T

American Ninja Warrior

This show is awesome. I never really watched it until this year, just a little here and there, but it's basically an obstacle course for ninja wannabe's. Fun to watch, some you cheer to do well, some you cheer to faceplant in the water below...

Last night history was made for the show. For the first time in it's seven year run someone finished the course. Think about that for a second. This has been going on seven years and for the first time ever someone finished (actually two guys). That's how hard this is and how much dedication it takes to make it.

Throughout the season you see this dedication. People build home ninja courses, there are ninja gyms with courses in them you can join, there are even a few people who have quit their jobs so they can train full time so they can be American Ninja Warriors (now that is a supportive spouse).

The thing I kept thinking about: it takes work to be amazing. I started wondering what our faith would look like if we put this type of effort into it. How holy would you be if you "trained" every day, maybe quit your job and did it all day every day? The problem is, it's easier to be the guy on the couch eating barbecue chips watching ninja's fly than it is to try and become a ninja.

But imagine how awesome it would be that you could be officially announced as an American Ninja Warrior...

T

Dig Just A Little More...

In the news today, Neolithic stones like the ones at Stonehenge have been found nearby. Only there are a hundred of them forming a gigantic semi-circle.

You can read more about it here: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-wiltshire-34156673

What really got me was the first sentence. They were discovered a whopping 3 feet under the earth.

3 feet.

Think of how many people for hundreds of years had no idea there were these massive stones right under their feet. 3 feet below them. So incredibly close but with no idea they were there. Millions of people were satisfied with just Stonehenge and those few stones where there was so much more to be known and discovered.

It's amazing what could have been found with just a little digging. I wonder how many people are content with what they believe about God or their relationship with Jesus when all the while they are so incredibly close to a break-though, something more that could completely change them forever. But they don't know because they won't do just a little digging.

What if you did a little digging into your faith, what would you find?

T

Jesus Outside The Gospels

So often we think of the Gospels as the story of Jesus, which is true. But in realty the entire Scripture points to Jesus...

It always amazes me when we tell stories like Ruth or Mephibosheth and people don't see how they point to our Savior. We just don't know the Word of God well enough to see it always. Until now.

There's a great new Bible that just came out that helps us see Jesus in the Old Testament. I'd highly recommend it.

http://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Centered-Life/pages/default?pageId=TO2CD720JJ5FM2T
http://www.simplyyouthministry.com/resources-adult-leaders-development-jesus-centered-bible-nlt-charcoal.html

Give it a try, you may be surprised how much more of Jesus you see.

T

If...

It's the question that kills the soul.

We talked about it last night at Drink Deep (our time together with sr. high students). When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, the first two times each temptation starts with the word "if". The one word that can immediately cause doubt and open up a world of hurt and other questions.

It's funny that the first temptation also deals with doubt. "Did God really say...".

Too often we see temptation is being convinced, swindled, pushed into doing something wrong. Maybe it's way simpler than that. Maybe it's just someone adding confusion. Asking "if".

There's only one way to truly combat anyone who asks "if" or "did _____really say/do". To know the truth wholeheartedly and hold onto that truth with all you have.

Find the Truth, and don't let go.

"Jesus said, “I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life. No one gets to the Father apart from Me. " John 14:6 (MSG)

T