What's the Next Step?

This weekend we had a huge rally all over the world in the name of science. Tens of thousands marched in over 600 cities in six continents. All to bring to voice their opinion and let the world know how they feel about science and its role in government.

That's great. What's next?

Don't get me wrong, I think that in any movement, be it a world changing claim to a personal improvement the first step is always awareness. But it can't stop there. Awareness can generate action but in and of itself is not action. Just because I'm aware there is slavery in Africa over chocolate doesn't in any way help one of the children in the fields picking cocoa beans. I have to actually do something next.

People marched. Again great, awareness. But what is being done to fix the problem? What if every one of those people gave money to scientific work? That would allows those who are examining the problems with global warming to get more data and more concrete facts to work with. The March for Science website is phenomenal, it's slogan is exactly what I'm thinking. "We marched. Now, we act." And on the website are things everyone can do to help progress science, each day giving new ideas for a full week. You can visit it at https://satellites.marchforscience.com/.

But how many people marched and then went home? How many have taken the time to see the website, give money, do something other than walk and make people aware?

This is all true in our faith as well. Awareness is the first step. I need more of Jesus. I need to work on this in my life. I am a sinner who needs a Risen Savior. But the awareness by itself does nothing. I may be aware I need to be forgiven but I then need to actually ask forgiveness. I need to get involved in a community of faith, to read my Bible, to pray, to serve, worship, etc.

Awareness is great. But what's the next step?

T

"I Am Your Father"

It's one of the most iconic twists in film history, the quintessential snake in the mailbox. The moment when Darth Vader tells Luke Skywalker that he is Luke's father.

Sorry if I spoiled that for you, but my guess is you've already heard it. I've heard it. I've seen it hundreds of times. It's a story I've watched over and over and now mentioning that twist isn't news, it's a normal everyday thing to me.

But it's not for these people. There was a trend a few years ago where people captured their children's, spouses', friends' reactions to this iconic scene. You can see a few of them below.





Here's my question for you: Yesterday you (probably) along with over a billion other people heard the story of Jesus' resurrection. Or reheard. Or heard it for the thousandth time. But does is still shake you to the core? Does it change you? When you hear that our Savior rose from the dead is it a shock like the people in the video or is it like me, an everyday occurrence being highlighted again?

Hear the story with fresh ears. See it with fresh eyes. Put yourself in the story. Witness it. How amazing is it? How much does it change you?

Today is the day after Easter. How is your life changed the day after the shock of Christ literally defeating death?

T

Planning For Spring

It continually amazes me how God plans ahead. But this one hit me a little bit harder.

I was reading the other day and the author was talking about the connection between spring and Jesus' resurrection. This person almost seemed upset by it, like there were too many connections between spring and Jesus that shouldn't be there or that we are simplifying Christ rising from the dead with bad spring analogies.

I wholeheartedly disagree. For one big reason. It was all done on purpose.

Think about it, Jesus could have risen from the grave any day of the week. Any time in human history. But God chose specifically for this to happen over Passover so the people of Israel would see the connection between Passover and Easter.

Which means this: God planned for Christ to rise during Spring 1500 years before is happened. God could have sent Moses to Egypt and planned the Exodus at any time of the year. It was all ordained for this to happen during the spring, Exodus, the Jewish New Year, Christ's return to life, events thousands of years ago and thousands of years apart all planned for us to see these connections.

There are no little coincidences with God. Everything, everything is planned, and with reason...

Enjoy Easter this Sunday, and look for God in every little thing.

T

Adjusting Eyes

This still hits me a little bit.

The other night I was working on a deck with my father-in-law. And he is a worker, he wants to start when the sun comes up and keep at it until the sun goes down. That's exactly what happened on this project, we were working until the sun was gone, there was a little porch light we used to work.

But as we worked, I didn't really notice it get darker (someone else had to ask for the light to be turned on). I just kept working. It wasn't until we were putting things in the garage at the end of the night and I walked into this brightly lit room that my eyes screamed, "it's so bright in here!"

I feel like this happens to our soul as well. Darkness rarely attacks us and we just succumb to it. It's gradual and slow, so slow we don't realize there is darkness inside us. Life continues as if it is business as normal. Only when we are slapped in the face with light do we realize how dark our soul and our lifestyle has become.

This just one of the billions of reasons why we need to be in the presence of God as much as humanly possible. It's a constant check at our spiritual blindness. How are we doing at looking into the light? Are we living lives that reflect that light? It's only by being in the presence of light does the darkness receded.

Psalm 56:12-13 ~ I will fulfill my vows to you, O God, and will offer a sacrifice of thanks for your help. For you have rescued me from death; you have kept my feet from slipping. So now I can walk in your presence, O God, in your life-giving light. (NLT)

T

#30HF

That's the hashtag for the 30 Hour Famine. If you'd like to see what our students and other students around the world are doing to help fight global hunger search for it.

For us, this weekend we did the 30 Hour Famine together as a group. Some of our students were pros, they've done this before. Some were newbies, they had no idea what this would be like.

The biggest revelation for me is people realizing what all they take for granted. Snacking constantly through the day, having a pantry that's full so they can snack through the day, having clean water sent straight to your house (in multiple rooms) instead of to walking 4 miles carrying 70 pound jugs. Too often we don't think about how good we've got it because it's normal to us.

Let's do what we can to make it normal for everyone. If you would still like to sponsor what we did you can at http://youth.worldvision.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donordrive.team&teamID=15464.

Thanks for your support, let's make things like clean water and healthy food the new normal.

T

"But I Built That With My Own Two Hands"

That was my inner monologue last week.

About eight years ago I built a bench. And I built it to last. This thing is heavy as can be. All our board games fit in it. It can support many people on it (we even had kids sleep on it during our Real World Retreat a couple of times). But even more so, this was the first major building project I did on my own. I built this. It was something I am attached to.

And now it's in a dumpster.

I chose to do that. Our daughter loves to play on the bench but we have an idea of something she may like better. And the only space for it is where this bench was, and seeing it was built to fit only in certain corners of a room the options for new places for it to live are extremely limited.

So I destroyed it. It is so heavy it was harder getting it out of the house than it was to get in. It made a mess. it was way more work to get rid of it than we imagined. But we did it.

Because that's how change works. It's messy, it's hard, you have to destroy things you are attached to and many times on a gamble that the new thing will work like we're doing.

But it needs to be done. I would rather risk something amazing for my daughter than hold onto something comfortable not because it's good for her but because I don't want to hurt myself.

I wonder how often we have this same conversation about change with God. Are you willing to risk? Are you willing to let go of something you love? Are you thinking about what God wants for you or what you want for you?

Get a sledgehammer and start breaking things up...

T

Looking Back

I did something I haven't done in a while. I looked back at some of my first blog posts. Painful.

Painful because I could see all the things that have changed. How I write, what I was doing, even little things like talking about my iPod (talk about old technology... I still have it...).

But the best part of it? It was painful. If it was not, if it was good to me, or familiar, that would have been even worse. That would have meant I haven't changed at all in a decade. It would mean my ministry, how I communicate, even how I listen to music hasn't changed at all.

Here's a challenge, look back at where you were a year ago, two years, five, maybe even ten or twenty. What's changed?

And if nothing's changed, why? (and how do you start to change).

T

Ashes and Lipstick

A little while ago we took the family to Walt Disney World. If you know anything about our family it's the closest to heaven on earth for us. Our daughter, now being three years old and understanding what's going on, loved it. Specifically meeting every character the Walt Disney Company has ever created. But one of her favorites (and ours) was Merida.

Mainly because Merida loved our daughter. She immediately hugged her, got on the ground with her, played with her, listened to her stories, it was very obvious that Merida was having a ton of fun with our little one. So much fun that at the end she did something that this princess does not do very often. She gave our daughter a kiss on the forehead, bright read lipstick painting the fact she loved the Little Miss. And for the rest of the day we heard about it, people at Disney saw it and asked (and were surprised it was Merida). Even now at home she will see pictures of herself with the lips on her forehead and get all giggly.

Fast forward to the other night. We were at our church's Ash Wednesday service. At the end we went up to get the ashes on our foreheads and, or course, the little one was covering her forehead saying "no". We didn't push, she doesn't understand, so mom and dad got ours and we went back to our seats. Our daughter looked at us, you could tell she was a little puzzled, but then burst into telling everyone about how she was kissed on the forehead by Merida. She saw the marks on our foreheads and immediately associated it with her own from Disney.

It was great to hear this, take a step back, and think about it. In many ways this is Christ kissing our foreheads, it's a mark of our love for Christ and His love for us. It's bigger than ashes one day a week, we are marked by Christ as His. Much like our daughter remembers the love of a princess because of the kiss that left a mark on her we can remember the love of Christ for us by the mark He leaves on us.

Ephesians 1:13b ~ When you heard the true teaching—the Good News about your salvation—you believed in Christ. And in Christ, God put his special mark of ownership on you by giving you the Holy Spirit that he had promised. (NCV)

Ashes and lipstick fade but being loved lasts forever.

T

Who Pays For It?

The Big Bang Theory had an interesting story line last week. One of the characters has all of their bills paid for by their father (must be nice) and his friends were bugging him asking about it. There was this sense of ignorant bliss in which questions were not welcome, they didn't know how much their bills were, the bills were just magically paid and that was that.

I wish this story wasn't so funny, but it is because of how many people actually live like this. I know of college students who just had their credit cards paid for them, they had no idea how much they were spending or what things really cost.

And I also see this sometimes in students. After all, when they get to do things like go on a mission trip for free, what does the cost matter? This is a conversation Liz and I have had a couple of times, what the cost of trips or events should be. And the number we come up with usually has a factor most don't think of, what do we charge so that there is still value to what we are doing? If it's free, students didn't put anything into it, they show up late, they may just cancel (after all, it's no charge so cancelling doesn't cost anything), etc. Part of realizing the value of something comes with paying for it.

Maybe this is part of the reason Christ gave us the responsibility of the church. He left it all to us, we spread the gospel, feed the hungry, lead the worship, it's all up to us. But that also means we need to pay for it, He also left that up to us.

For the next few weeks WATER (our sr. high students) will be looking at all that God has "Entrusted" us with and our responsibilities that go with that. We hope if you're in grades 9-12 you can be a part of that, but even if you're not, you could start the conversations. If this is God's church and we want to do all these amazing things for God's people, who pays for it...?

(instead of a single Bible verse I read a story the other day that is great if you want one to read. In I Chronicles 29 David is asks the people for supplies for his son to build the Temple. They get so much it can't be counted! Great story).

T

Adjusting

Do you want to know the easiest way to adjust something, to take something that we should hate and learn to love it (or the other way around)?

A little bit at a time.

Walking into a room with different lighting teaches us this. If we are outside in the bright sunlight and come into a dark room at first it's black. We can't see anything. Give it a few minutes. After that we start to make out shapes, then things become clearer, then we start seeing things we missed altogether just a few seconds ago.

Our eyes adjust slowly. But by the time they are done, the clarity is amazing.

This is how sin creeps into our life. Very few people wake up one day and decide to be angry at the world, but they lose a little joy and treat people a little worse every day and soon they have changed without realizing it. Likewise, if you want to improve, say change your diet, cutting all sugar and only eating salad will shock your system. But if you cut a little sugar each day, eat a few more vegetables each day...

We have to be conscious of this. We need to realize when we are slipping a little bit and stop it right away, letting it go will just cause us to adjust and soon we slip again. Likewise, we need to pay attention to what we want to change and do a little at a time.

You'll be surprised how quickly this can change us.

T

Why Are Roses More Expensive Tomorrow?

Of course we all know the answer, it's Valentine's Day. And roses are just more expensive that day because more people want to send roses, meaning people who sell roses know they can sell them for more.

Don't be fooled, it's not supply, it's demand. The companies know they will sell more roses, they stock-pile more of them. Very few places are going to run out of roses tomorrow. Some will even have extras they sell super cheap on Wednesday. It's just the demand. We're going to want roses more tomorrow than we will on any other day of the year.

And because of that, we will put in extra efforts. Call more places. Pay more money. Go pick them up if we need to. Suddenly we want it more so we will work harder to get it.

Here's my question, how hard are you willing to work to get to know Jesus better? It's funny, if I run a mission trip for students they are willing to pay a lot of money, do lots of extra work, give up a week of their time, they will put in extra effort to serve others. But if I try to get some students to serve here in town on a Saturday very few will show up. They will put in the effort for a mission trip because they know they will see Jesus where they aren't sure they will on a day at home.

But what if we have it backwards? What if we put in that same effort for the little things, would we see Jesus then? Would we see Him more? Would we see Him better?

If we all bought roses every day the prices would change. If we all put in the effort to find Jesus every day would how we see Jesus change?

T

How Would You Act If You Met Jesus?

Sorry it's been a few weeks, I was on vacation at the happiest place on earth.

If you don't think Disney World really is the happiest place on earth, you've never been there with my three-year-old daughter. She was so happy it was crazy. Rode her first roller coaster. Ate way too many french fries. But the real reason, she met all her "friends".

What I mean by that is almost every single Disney character you could meet. The Fab Five, Olaf, Chip 'n Dale, and a whole lot of princesses (and a queen).

One meeting I will always remember was Merida. Our daughter was ecstatic. She ran up and jumped up and down. And Merida was one of the few who crouched down to her level. Merida understood almost every single exited, crazy, three-year-old lisp sounding word, and she was actually interested. They cuddled. Merida kissed her forehead. She wanted to keep our daughter. In that moment our daughter was meeting a true princess she never knew she could meet and that princess absolutely loved her back.

I started to wonder what it would be like if people expected to meet Jesus like that, if they even showed up to our worship gatherings looking for Jesus like that. Jumping up and down, excited to see Him, talking to Him knowing they were heard, understood, and listened to, hugged, kissed, loved. If instead of seeing Sunday morning as a meet and greet with a young lady dressed as a princess we saw it as my daughter saw it, totally real and completely life changing.

How would you act if you knew you were meeting Jesus?

T

"I AM" Winter Retreat Reflection

I've been home from the Winter Retreat for a little over 24 hours now. Here's a short list of what I learned this weekend:

Gas stoves work best when the gas is turned on.
Always use less flour than the recipe says when baking bread (I usually follow this, but being away from home when we made bread I had to prepackage everything).
Everyone loves fresh bread lathered in butter.
You can say multiple times "we will be outside in the cold for a long time, please dress appropriately" and some will still show up with no jacket and no socks... and complain they are cold.
People will sing loudly if you encourage/let them.
Patience is something modeled.
Our students are some of the nicest and politest students on the planet (as told to me by multiple staff at the retreat center).
Jesus has a plan.
You may not realize a student is getting something out of what is going on, but they are.
Sheep are not dumb, they are defenseless.
People want to pray more, and will when given the guidance and/or opportunity.
"Hug the potholder" is a difficult instruction for some people.
Getting away from it all to focus on Jesus makes a tremendous difference.
Over the weekend some people spent more time focusing on Jesus than they did sleeping, and it still wasn't enough (they could easily have spent more time with Jesus).
When you're willing to listen Jesus has a lot to say.

And that's just off the top of my head in ten minutes. I'm sure there's many more.

If you went, what did you get from the "I AM" Winter Retreat?

T

Free Devotional For (Almost) A Year

It started yesterday, but I have been publishing a free devotional question a day for my book "21st Century Parables". If you'd like to join the conversation, you can see the questions at:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Troyswritingandmusic/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/@By_Troy.

You can purchase the book at:

Kindle - https://www.amazon.com/…/…/B01C98WZXK/ref=nav_timeline_asin…
iBooks - https://itunes.apple.com/…/twenty-first-centu…/id1087654669…

Nook - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/twenty-first-ce…/1123469392…
Kobo - https://www.kobo.com/…/…/ebook/twenty-first-century-parables

I'd love if this would help you out, to jump in with your thoughts in the comments, or even just to hear what you think of the book.

Enjoy.

T

What Do You Do After Waiting?

Yesterday was Christmas. Advent, the season of waiting on Christ, is over.

Or is it?

The whole point of Advent is to remind us to be "waiting" for Christ's return. But so often when waiting on something we hit that point where what we are waiting for happens. Then what?

I was thinking of the movie "Tangled" (it holds a special place in my family's hearts). There's a point where Rapunzel is worried she is about to see the thing she's been waiting her whole life to see. What if it's bad? Worse, what if it's good? What do you live for then.

And Flynn gives a great response. "Well that's the good part, I guess. You get to go find a new dream."

Too often we see living for Christ, or even waiting on Christ, as a single goal. There are so many ways you can wait on and serve Jesus. You may teach Sunday School for a season, or serve in a pantry for a season, or even be still for a season. But in each one, there is always a next step, a new way to wait on Christ waiting for you when this one ends.

So as Advent ends, and that focus on waiting is complete, how will you wait for Christ next?

T

Merry Christmas

It's my last post before Christmas, all these things I wanted to say have been rattling in my mind. But honestly, all I want to do is pray you have a wonderful Christmas.

So go enjoy it.

T

Please, Read The Story

I'm begging, for reals this time...

We don't know the Christmas Story. We don't. We know the highlights. We know the things people have added to it. But we don't know the story.

Every year we go over the Christmas story at FIRE & WATER Student Ministries. The Jr. High's do a quiz to see what they remember. The Sr. High's do something different every year, this time it was a play where when you knew what was next you jumped in.

And very few people jumped. While most Jr. High's failed a pop quiz.

Because we don't know the story.

It's really not that long to read. The first two chapters of Matthew, the first two chapters of Luke. Please, don't go off your memory of eight-year-old's acting it out in front of the church. Because you won't know the story, you know the eight-year-old's version of the story.

The perfect line came in a discussion after the play last night. "Every year we do this and I should know it, but every year I realize I don't".

Please, read the story.

(and on that note we started asking what other stories do we think we know but probably don't, there were a lot of answers realizing we know the movies or songs or children's books better than we actually know what's in the Bible)

T

Is This A Happy Time Of Year For You?

For many people it's not. Don't get me wrong, there's still a lot of Christmas cheer but it gets so busy and stressful we lose sight of what Christmas is all about. That brings on the "Reason for the Season" speeches that don't really help (at least not for me).

But there is a ring of truth in the idea of keeping our focus. Happiness many times is a choice. We can't choose what happens to us but we can choose how we react. And with all that goes on this holiday season there will be many things that happen we can't control or would not choose, but we can still choose to be joyful.

Dan Gilbert wrote a book called "Stumbling Upon Happiness", I haven't read it but I did see a presentation he gave. There was one line that struck me. The level of happiness after winning the lottery and the level of happiness after becoming a paraplegic is virtually the same. How can that be, one seems like the best thing that could happen to you and the other is horrible and we wouldn't wish it on anyone?

Because it's not about the circumstances, it's how we react to the circumstances. In this season we can choose to be stressed out or we can choose to be joyful. We can see a family party as something added to our schedule that we don't want to do or we can see it as a chance to visit with loved ones and let them know what they mean to us. It's the same party, but which one will allow you to be happier?

So as we start to really get into the Christmas season, choose to be happy. Choose to reflect Jesus. Choose to be of glad tidings and spread cheer. I'm not saying it will be easy, but not all choices are.

T

Advent Has Begun

Yesterday marked the beginning of Advent. I'll be honest, I don't remember much of this holiday growing up, I think we pretty much camped on Christmas Day (and Eve). But there is a season for many people in which we remember that we are to wait for Christ just as "we" waited for the Christ child to show up the first time.

I hope you will take some time this season to be quiet and "wait upon the Lord", meaning to take time and listen for God, be hyper-aware and really sensitive to who He is. In this season where we have more put on us (holidays, parties, shopping, finals, end of year projects, etc.) it's in this time we have to work even harder to carve out time to just be still, and we need it more than ever.

So in this Advent season, wait.

T

Be Thankful

Being thankful is a choice. It's not a reaction or an impulse, it's something we choose to do.

Likewise, it's something we can choose not to do.

It may be easy to be thankful this week. It may be hard. It may be forced upon you at the dinner table as everyone has to say one thing they are thankful for (and you better not steal someone else's answer). But the reality is, no matter what, it's a choice. And we can always choose to be thankful.

Always give thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. ~ Ephesians 5:20 (NCV)