Don't Miss the Cross

Easter has come and passed but the cross never loses it's significance. No matter what time of year may we never let the cross of Christ get too far from our minds.
http://vimeo.com/92291575

2 Reasons Why You Should Go See Noah

1. Because we cannot give an informed answer to anyone's questions unless we have actually seen the movie.
2. Because it's a good movie, not a Sunday School lesson.

Debbie Downer: 3 Ways to not be One

There is always negative in life.

Always.

Bad things should not be ignored completely (healing cannot come without acknowledging the problem) but when they happen the easiest response is usually to spend a few good hours/days/weeks/years enjoying the attention it gets us. It's easy and comfortable to let the negative overwhelm us because it allows us to be a victim and receive pity. It's also deadly because the longer we dwell in the negative the harder it is to see the positive.

Here are 3 ways to avoid being a Debbie Downer.

1.  Be Thankful First: When we actually do the math in our lives we most often realize that our blessings far out way our complaints. In Philippians 4 Paul says to rejoice in the Lord always. Then he says it again... rejoice. This is an interesting statement when you consider that Paul wrote this letter while in prison. Even then Paul found more reasons to rejoice than to complain. He also mentions in the letter that complaining and grumbling are to be avoided in order to be blameless. When we start with being thankful it's hard to end with being angry because it frames our problems in God's goodness.
2. Look For Yourself in People: If we're honest the most common catalyst for negativity is people. We get disappointed, betrayed, stood up, etc and we throw a pity party. The easy thing to do then is to see the other person as an enemy, as different and dysfunctional. It's much harder to hate on someone when you begin with seeing the things you have in common. It very well could be that this person is acting like that because they feel the same stress to succeed that you do and they are doing their best to bring it about. It could be that this person is no later than I was two days ago.
3. Relax: It's darn near impossible to be happy if you never take care of yourself. Even Jesus stopped for a meal, got alone to pray, and hung out with his best friends a lot. If you're tempted to be negative go get a massage, spend time alone in prayer, spend time with your spouse, play a video game, watch espn, go to a concert, read a book, go snowboarding, or take a nap. When we are at ease everything seems easier.

Being negative, like cocaine, feels good at the time, but eventually traps us in an addictive cycle.

Don't be a Debbie Downer.

Stereotypes and Grace

You never know how much you stereotype people until you try to buy a house and move your new wife to a new neighborhood. It's easy to think that I'm perfectly accepting until I have to leave my wife alone in that house for the two weeks I'm gone to youth camp, then it get's a little harder. All of a sudden everyone becomes a potential intruder, but especially people that fit certain stereotypes that I have fought my whole life to defeat.

It's very convicting.

It's very humbling.

It's very uncomfortable.

It makes me wonder how accepting I actually am.

It makes me wonder how accepting our churches really are.

Carl Lentz said that if you feel comfortable leaving your wallet unattended you're going to the wrong church. 

In my heart I agree. In my head I'm uncomfortable. 

I don't think I'm the only one who struggles through this. I don't think it does us any good to pretend like it's not there either.

It's not that any of us think that grace is only for certain people groups that we're comfortable with. It's just that many of us wish someone else would be called to extend grace to them.

We say amen when people quote Paul.

"I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. " - 1 Corinthians 9:22b

But we still reach for our wallets and hit the lock button a few extra times when we see certain people. 

I am convinced of one thing- God doesn't call us to be comfortable, he calls us to suck it up. 

The story of the good samaritan is the perfect example. The samaritan was in the wrong place, about to get jumped, and walked up to somebody who doesn't really want his help, but he stopped anyway. There is no way he didn't feel uncomfortable, but grace goes beyond comfort. 

Grace says "We're really different, lets be friends." Grace says "I'm nervous in this neighborhood, let's have a prayer walk." "Grace says they don't look like they belong here. I'll help them belong." 

Grace doesn't always say "I'll walk alone after dark in a sketchy part of town." Dumb says that. 

Grace says "I have been affected by the stereotypes, but I'm fighting my judgmental nature. I love people anyway." 

We don't need to be comfortable in every single place with every single person. We need to love them anyway. 

Fall Off the Log: 4 steps to dealing with controversy

This is not another post about Phil Robertson or A&E.

To be quite frank my opinion is irrelevant. I don't know all of the details, and my blog, twitter and Facebook will do nothing but boost my ego or loose me a friend if I write something controversial about this topic. Same goes for all of us.

What this entire situation does do is force us each to do a bit of self evaluation. This is a situation in which many of us will, as one of my favorite college professors would say, "fall off the log." We'll pick a side and then argue, debate, and likely complain for a good long time.

The issue is less about which side we take and

 more about how we take that side. 

I've said before, human beings are reactionary. We're emotional, and while emotion is wonderful, it get's us into trouble. We get offended and react instead of listening, pondering, accepting criticism, and then acting. We should remember those four things.

1. Listen: A friend in college once said "you only have the right to an opinion if it's educated." This statement has nothing to do with your degree of schooling, it has everything to do with your willingness to listen. Until we know both sides of the issue we shouldn't address it. Truth is not necessarily found in the facts of the situation, sometimes it is found in the perceptions, emotions, attitudes, and preconceived notions. 

2. Ponder: My biggest weakness, we should each think before we speak. A brand new idea is usually a bad one. -not because the idea is necessarily bad, but because the first words out of our mouths are not usually the ones we'll wind up going with. 

3. Accept Criticism: Before we start a campaign we should find a few trusted friends on each side of the issue and run it by them. Accept their criticism and grow from it. Allow them to help us learn how to disagree in a loving manner. 

4. Then Act: *And only if, after all that consideration, the action is still worth taking.* We need to be people who take thought out, calculated, prayed out, action. Emotionally reacting to something is like slamming the door on your mom when you're arguing. Whether you had a good point or not you're not going to win now. Because it was disrespectful. 

**While we're on the topic of disrespect, being disrespected does not give us the right to disrespect others. Yelling matches never solve anything. 

What has made this entire scandal so outrageous is not what Phil Robertson said and not what A&E did, it is how people have reacted. This situation would be much easier, and un-clutter my news feed, if we would listen in love instead of yell. (or thoroughly read and type in all caps since most of this has taken place on the internet.) 

We're going to fall off the log on lots of issues. Let's do it well. 

Two Factors of Identity Crisis

We live in a world that has set our youth and young adults up for confusion. 

Here's how:

1. American culture is largely based on success and accomplishment. Everything about our history and our values leads us to believe that we can pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and make something great of ourselves. From George Washington to Jackie Robinson, our heroes, some underdogs- some just determined, are men and women who have pushed the idea of excellence to a new extreme. In the same way we have given accomplishment a very strict identity, a pay grade, and to some degree a body type. 

2. Our culture teaches students to "be who they really are." As we express to our children what matters by our culture, we tell them that they don't have to be great by anyone's standards but their own. We tell them that social norms and status quo's are meant to be broken and they can be anything they want to be. In other words we tell them that their accomplishment isn't what defines them. 

We have given young people a mixes message -a paradox- so it's no surprise that many of them (us) are confused. We tell them they can be anything, that they are perfect just the way they are, then they go to school and still get made fun of because they're not athletic or overly smart, or they still don't get recognition because they aren't pursuing normal standards of excellence. This leads young people to an inevitable identity crisis, where who they want to be and what they are expected to be collides. 

This is the crisis that youth and young adult workers find themselves dealing with on a daily basis. 

This is the reason so many teens don't know who they really are.

This is why identity in Christ is the most powerful message we can teach as Christian leaders. More than ever before our peers need to know who they are and what makes them valuable. They need to know they were made in the image of God, and the God in whose image they were made died because he thinks they are that valuable. 

Hide and Seek

One of the most beautiful stories in all of scripture is found in Genesis chapter 3. Here we find a story drenched in controversy and grace with a twist not even the most astute observer would predict.

To summarize Adam and Eve had it perfect, doubted who they were made to be, chose sin, and were about to get caught. Like any mature adult would do when they're about to get caught they hide. Which is a ridiculous idea in the first place because they hide from God. It seems like a lot of work for nothing to me. They sew together leaves to make clothing and hide in some bushes so the all powerful creator won't notice that anything's wrong.

When we consider the details of the story it's a pretty odd picture. It reminds me of kids playing hide and seek. We adults have very little imagination when it comes to playing games, but kids on the other hand take the most enjoyment in the imagination. They run around the yard pretending bushes are forests and blankets are deep caves and they bury themselves, convinced that they will never be found. It would be a boring game if our parents didn't play along. No kid would have fun if dad walked into the bedroom, saw the obvious child shape under the covers, and just pulled them out. No, even though Dad knows exactly where the child is hiding there is something powerful about the seeking.

That why the story in Genesis is so beautiful. God seeks his children. He didn't need to. He wasn't lost, and they certainly weren't fooling him with their pitiful disguises, but he sought them. He called out for them. God didn't rip away the covers to expose their shame, He called to them. He asked them to come out because His first concern was his children, not their punishment. He wanted to hear their voice, not just tell them what they had done wrong. Even in his justice his primary concern was relationship with His children.

God is still seeking us. We don't have to hide, our imaginary fortresses of pride and accomplishment aren't fooling anyone. God is seeking us.

Like 19:10 "For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost."