perhaps...

call me an idealist or naive or an eternal optimist.

maybe i am.

but i still say we can dream can't we?
I believe God has dreams for this world... and I think our dreams should line up with His dreams.

i'll be 100% transparent. i have no idea what to think about war. i'm utterly confused about that topic. so i guess it's a good thing i don't have anything to do with making those kind of decisions.

but i have thought about it a lot over the past few years.

here (i think) are some great words i read a couple years ago from Brian McLaren in his amazing book about the Kingdom of God - The Secret Message of Jesus.

“If people believe that wars are necessary and justified, then wars will continue to happen. If people believe in redemptive violence..." 

[timeout: that phrase, "redemptive violence" has got to be an oxymoron, right? i'm just sayin.]

"...then violence will proliferate. But if they believe the secret message of Jesus, they will believe that there are creative alternatives to war and violence, and by the grace of God, fewer and fewer wars and less and less violence may happen as a result.

And someday, by the grace of God, PERHAPS war will go the way of slavery and colonialism—so that we can say that the kingdom of God has more fully come.”

perhaps...
perhaps one day soon.

but one day for sure war will be done. we'll beat our swords and guns into gardening tools. that will be awesome. that's the definite future when The Revolution of God fully comes.

don't forget that peacemakers are the blessed ones.
so, i guess for those who are pacifists... you could say they are wrong and naive if you want to, but at least one day they will be right. (if not already.)

God has dreams for the world. what if we could align our dreams with His and work toward making them reality.

perhaps we can.

my newest experiment

i have lots of little experiments i try from time to time. i've probably written about a few before.

my newest experiment is more than an experiment. it's more than just a temporary project. my goal is for it to become a way of life for me.

it started with a simple question:
what if i could make someone's day every day? what if i could leverage my life and my interactions with other people to make their day with a tiny, simple act of kindness. what if my kindness, my smile, my words... could (even momentarily) lift another person out of their sadness, stress, boredom, or seemingly crappy life? what if i could give a glimmer of hope?

the experiment for me has been with strangers. people i bump into every day. people i rub shoulders with, mainly when they're at work.
People who work places where their job doesn't require them to win me over. Places like McDonald's. they don't need to be nice to me (and they're usually not) because they've already won me over.

(but when i go with my wife to Destination Maternity they are all being overly [probably in a fake way] NICE... because their commission depends on it. my experiment doesn't work quite as well there.)

but what if i could walk into a McDonald's and leave it better than when i walked in. what if i could make 1 person's day who is working there. They're in the middle of an 8 hour shift and dreading the next 4 hours. what if i could somehow put a smile on their face and make the next 4 hours more enjoyable for them? or at least the next 5 minutes while i'm there.

it's more than possible. i'm having fun doing it.

and when it happens. in that little space, in that little portion of time... it's like there is such love and kindness that the Kingdom of God has broken through. it's a holy moment in the Chipotle.
The Revolution has come to the UPS store or the bank.

it's pretty fun.
in order to do this i have learned that i must set aside my stresses and my worries to focus on doling out love and kindness to them. i have to set aside my agenda... or really, this project becomes my agenda.

so, it's just one little addition to The Revolution. but it's the Kingdom nonetheless. turning a little unkindness to kindness. a time and space usually reserved for short, curt, rudeness is transformed into joy & love.

i know it doesn't seem "spiritual", but it is. i know it doesn't seem like this could really be part of the Kingdom of God, but it very much is.

it's just a little spark when 1 person does this. but WHAT IF thousands of people were experimenting this way? what if 1 million people were doing this every day all across the world?

well, that's simple. the world would be a very different place.

new volunteer

there's this church on the corner of our neighborhood. It's a big, stately looking brick church. it's called Oak Grove United Methodist Church.

i dropped in once on a Sunday morning (back when Ridge was meeting Sunday nights). it's the opposite of our style. opposite of my preferences. i didn't even stick it out the whole way through their service.
(but that's OK, if they came to Ridge they might not dig it either.)

i don't even know that much about the Methodists. i know John Wesley and think he's pretty cool. one of my seminary profs was a big shot with the United Methodists. that's about all i know AND that our styles are very far apart.

i guess that's why it's kind of funny that Crystal and i are the newest volunteers at the Oak Grove United Methodist Church!

yep. we're hanging out with the methodists. and they're actually pretty cool.

i didn't quit my job at Ridge or anything... we're volunteering on Wednesdays when a team from the church simply comes together to make about 500 sandwiches for the homeless people who live in downtown Charlotte.

They have a pretty sweet system for making the sandwiches and then they have a couple huge coolers we pack them in and then deliver them to an urban ministry shelter in the heart of uptown Charlotte.

i love that the church is literally in our neighborhood. Crystal and i walk to it. there's something kind of cool about that.

one thing i did know about the Methodists is that they're all about social justice. that's like their "thing". and i'm all about that.

it's a beautiful thing hanging with these people who worship in a radically different way on sundays... but we're worshiping together and in the exact same way on Wednesdays making these sandwiches.

so here we are. the newest volunteers at the Methodist church on the corner. we look a lot different than the rest of the volunteers, but it's all good.

far from reality

check out this story and see how it lines up with reality:

A 12 year old girl moves from a rural town in Missouri to metropolitan Chicago; her father has landed a job in the city and is relocating the family just before the new school year.

On the first day of class, the girl boards the school bus; there the driver welcomes her by extending his hand to help her enter, and a little by scoots over in his seat to make room for her.

When the girl arrives at school, another helpful student shows her to her homeroom class, where she checks in with her teacher, who opens the class by introducing the young girl to everyone else. Even though the girl's clothes aren't sophisticated, you wouldn't know it by the other students' reactions. They smile at her openly and greet her pleasantly, and the girl feels very welcome.

A half-dozen kids clamor for the opportunity to show her to her next class. As she walks down the hallway, a smiling vice-principal gently pats her on the shoulder and asks how she's feeling.

At the school cafeteria, several classmates join her for lunch. They talk with her about music, boys, and movies. She finds out that although these kids' interests and hobbies differ from those of her old friends, everyone is open to listening to her opinions.

At the end of the day, she leaves school and sees her mother waiting for her patiently in the parking lot. "How was your day?" she asks. The girl smiles and tells her it was just great.

(Fictional story via Tim Sanders)

i believe a world like that is possible.

but what would it take? what would it take for there to be a generation of students to live this out.

i think it would take a revolution.

it would almost be as if the Kingdom of God were here. in that city of Chicago... or wherever.

in this place

speaking of living "lives worth telling stories about" you have GOT to get a copy of In This Place and read it ASAP!

it's written by an awesome friend of ours, Kim Abernethy. She and her husband, Jeff spent about 15 years in Liberia and the Ivory Coast serving the people there and they have some ridiculous stories to share.

they truly lived and are living lives worth telling stories about.

and many of those stories are detailed in Kim's new book that came out this year, In This Place. you can pick up a copy from Amazon HERE or HERE for the Kindle version.

Today, Jeff and Kim were awesome enough to come hang out with the students at Ridge Church and share some of their stories.

we were all inspired to live lives worth telling stories about. the only kind of life that satisfies.

Their stories will inspire you too, which is why you need to read the book! you'll laugh one minute and cry the next.

Crystal and i are so so thankful to be able to call Jeff & Kim friends!

lives worth telling stories about

that's the kind of life i want to live. one worth telling stories about.

we've been talking about this idea with the students at Ridge since the beginning of 2011. This phrase isn't original with me but i heard it at a conference in 07 from Mark Batterson. i think the phrase also shows up in his book In a Pit with a Lion On a Snowy Day. (+ a big thanks to the talented Natalie Osborne for the above logo.)

so, we challenge this rising generation to live lives worth telling stories about.
the sad part is that the vast majority of people on this earth do the OPPOSITE. they just lay low and live easy, "secure" lives.

most people live lives that no one could ever make a movie about. nobody will ever write a book about them. because their lives are boring. safe. predictable. free from all risk. most peoples' lives don't make good stories.

but that's not the kind of lives that God calls us to. that's not the kind of life i want to live. maybe we can pave the way and blaze a path away from the normal and safe into a new way of living our lives.

when i'm 80 years old i wanna have some crazy awesome stories to tell.

long time no blog

i think this officially the longest i have ever gone without blogging.

This year i've been posting something almost every day, but my last post was June 13... 10 days between posts is a new record for renown.

i guess i was too busy to write and other things took priority over blogging in the last 11 days.

i'm thankful that Ridge was able to team up with a couple other churches and we pulled off our own camp this week at Myrtle Beach for Middle and High Schoolers. it was an awesome week.

just to clarify, i haven't given up on writing. just the opposite. i guess i took a little accidental sabbath from blogging.
now i'm coming back refreshed and hopefully better. because i have a lot of things i want to write about. a lot of things i'm passionate about saying.

i'm excited to start saying them tomorrow

thoughts on what i should do with my time

(This is a repost from November 9th, 2009.)

I can vividly remember reading Rick Warren when I was in college and him saying a phrase that stuck with me. He said something like "God gives you enough time to get everything done He wants you to do." Therefore, if there are things you know God wants you to do that you don't have time to do... you must be doing something else that's not necessary.

That impacted me so much that it has stuck in my head all the time ever since I read it.

I struggle with it too. Like this week for example I have so much on my plate that there is no way I can get it all done. I am consistently (for the past few months) empowering others and getting tons of stuff off my plate. BUT I still can't get it all done.

I feel like I am a pretty good time manager. I don't waste very much of it... if any.
So, I am trying to figure out what I'm doing that is not something God wants me to do? because (if Rick's statement is true) I should have enough time to do everything God wants me to do... and I don't think that's the case right now.

anyone else have this problem?
any thoughts on Rick's quote?

are you cursed? (financial advice)

(I originally posted this to renown on November 4, 2009.)
 
"Those who give to the poor will lack nothing,
but those who close their eyes to them receive many curses."
 - Proverbs 28:27

dang! just read that this morning for probably the millionth time. Can't get away from it so I figured I would write about it in my journal... and now here on my online journal = the renown blog.

that is pretty intense. Pretty hard core. "give... lack nothing... many curses."

I really want to give a lot to the poor. I want to give all I have in fact. There's no sense in me having a lot when some people have nothing.

I can always give more though... and I want to keep trying to give more & more. But I will agree with God's promise in this verse = "give to the poor & lack nothing." I honestly "lack nothing."

On the other hand... "those who close their eyes to them receive many curses." whoa.
So, basically God's financial advice is this: "Give to the poor and have everything you need. Don't give to the poor and you're screwed."

*But I kept reading that sentence over and over and it's even deeper than that! this phrase grabbed me = "those who close their eyes to them"

It's not just those who don't give... it's those who actually close their eyes to the poor. And I'm like "how in the world could anybody close their eyes to the poor?" Then it hit me that this is for us today. It's an indictment of OUR culture! WE close our eyes to the poor! US. American Christians close our eyes to them all the time.

We walk past the homeless guy and look the other way. We see and hear about children dying in Africa because they don't have clean water and we just go about making our car payments! we're closing our eyes to them!

I don't really know what "many curses" looks like for us? but I'm pretty sure it's not good.

I think our ultimate motives for giving to the poor should be an unquenchable love for God and His fame and bringing His Kingdom on earth. And also loving our poor neighbors like we love ourselves. (something like the 2 greatest commands...)

BUT, even though these should be our ultimate motives, I don't think this is a half bad financial plan either!
GIVE to the poor = lack nothing
Follow the rest of our culture and close your eyes to the poor = many curses.

seems like a no brainer to me.

what would it be like?

so, what if love really does win?

and what if we lived like LOVE WINS and we all truly believed LOVE WINS.
the world would be a different place.

*i believe that another world is possible.

& i believe that because love wins.

dream with me for a minute what the world would look like if love wins. imagine with me for a second what would NOT exist if love wins for real:

There would be no hate, no greed, no pride, no division, and no people being exploited or excluded.
No people would die because they don't have medicine that we can afford.
No people would die because they don't have clean water.

There would be no more mean people, no more revenge.
Racism would only be something we read about in history books as we scratched our heads with a puzzling look.
We would no longer hear stories about that horrible evil called child slavery.

War would end forever. There wouldn't be any child abuse or crime or violence.

We wouldn't see anymore homes falling apart after tornadoes... or maybe just for a day.
No more homeless people. What's that? a homeless person? a person who doesn't have anywhere to live? i don't understand?

There would be no more orphans living on the streets.

because if love wins it defeats every single one of those evils!

This all sounds kind of like a Kingdom someone named Jesus talked about.

what if each of us constantly asked ourselves the question - "How can love win" in this situation? what if we asked that every single day in every single situation? How can love win?

another world is possible.

a revolution is coming.

love always wins

i just happen to firmly believe that love wins.

no matter what. every single time. love wins.

i believe it even though it goes against my nature. sometimes i don't want to let love win. some days i wish revenge or hate or laziness or apathy could win.

but it never does... because love always wins.

i believe that if you extend your hand enough times... if you extend love enough times EVENTUALLY love will win.

but today this belief will be challenged. something will happen to you and to me TODAY that will challenge this belief. something will begin to make us think that some reaction other than love will win.

or maybe we know it cognitively, but we don't want to let love win. revenge would be more fun. doing nothing would be easier.

i know what they did to me. but love wins.
i know the injustice that is happening. love wins.

because we all live life with a ton of different people. our family, spouses, co-workers, friends, teammates, roommates, bosses, coaches, teachers, employees, neighbors, and fellow drivers on the road... and all these people challenge this idea that love wins.
because they will mock us, cuss at us, say mean things about us behind our back, hurt us, etc...

but ultimately, with every single one of these people love wins.

if we live this way people will definitely think we're weird. they'll probably laugh at us and say we're "weak". that we're just letting people walk all over us and not sticking up for ourselves.

but i still say love wins.

it's even harder to live this way because no one lives this way. this is so not normal. in fact it's opposite of how normal people live. it's revolutionary.
love wins.

wonder

(This is a repost from September 9, 2009.)

2nd week ever student ministry gathering @ Ridge Church this past Sunday - Student Impact. We're still in our Rhythm series & the whole morning was about what I am possibly most passionate about... I just use different words sometimes.

We talked about WONDER. We all give our wonder to something. Every single person on earth chases after something that captures their wonder. And whatever captures our wonder, that's what we give our lives to.

In my humble opinion, the Church has done a sucky job of helping students see that God is the only One who is worthy of capturing our sense of wonder and that every other thing that WOWs us will never really satisfy us fully or make us ultimately happy. That's just the way we were created. We're missing something until God fully captures our wonder and all the other good things in life are just secondary.

I think only God can cause a student to "get" that, but I am passionate about trying everything we can to help them get there! So, we talked about it this past Sunday. They spent A LOT of quality time in their small groups talking about it more.

During my talk I read a quote from a book I read early on in my journey of "getting" the wonder of God. It's from C.S. Lewis' The Weight of Glory (and as I told the students, "yes, he did write other stuff besides The Chronicles of Narnia!"). The part at the very beginning of that book that left me breathless was this:

“if we consider the unblushing promises… in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. WE ARE FAR TOO EASILY PLEASED.”

Wow. I can still remember the 1st time I read that. I remember where I was sitting. It was a big moment. My whole life I thought that the strong desires I had for something to WOW me, to capture my wonder, to chase after something... were too strong & bad! But it was never that they were bad or that I was going after all that stuff... It was that = I was missing something even better! And if I would go after that infinite pleasure I would finally be satisfied!

I knew that quote wouldn't connect with the students like it did for me as a 21 year old, so I prayed and worked hard to contextualize it. Here's they story I came up with:

Think of your favorite band/musical artist. Your favorite one in the whole world... you have all their CDs and know all their songs. Imagine that later today someone gives you 2 free tickets to their concert! You start freaking out immediately and call your best friend to go with you to the concert because of course it's their favorite band too.
The concert gets closer and closer and the anticipation builds and builds. You are SO excited.
The day finally arrives and you and your friend walk into this HUGE stadium concert with 70,000 people! You are mesmerized by this scene. Your band comes out and starts playing the opener and you start singing along. You are so excited that you and your friend slip into 2 seats there in the back row where you walked in at.
It is an amazing night. They played all your favorite songs and you sing along with them all. You are hoarse. You took a ton of pics for Facebook. It was the night of your life. You were WOWed.
Your friend stays over at your house that night and you 2 stay up all night talking about the amazing experience at that concert. You relive every second of it together.

And then you pull the ticket stubs out of your pocket. You look at them really for the 1st time because when you got them you were so excited that you didn't bother to look closely. So, for the 1st time you notice that these tickets were for FRONT ROW SEATS! You can't believe that you didn't notice this! You could have been sitting 10 feet away from your favorite band instead of seemingly 10 miles away in the back row. You could have almost reached out and touched them. Maybe the guitar player would have tossed you a pick, or the drummer might have tossed you one of his sticks?
Then you flip the tickets over and see for the 1st time on the back that these were also BACK STAGE PASSES! They were good for an hour after the concert to hang out with your favorite band - meet them, take pictures with them, eat food with them, etc...
As awesome as the concert was in the back row, you cannot believe that you missed out on what would have been so much better!

God has given us so many good things to enjoy here on earth! They are awesome things. But when we are so WOWed by them that we miss the ultimate wonder - God - then we're like that kid making mud pies in the slum & skipping the vacation at the beach. Or we're like someone sitting in the back row when they could have been on the front row & backstage with their fav band.

So, of course students (& everyone) are going to keep chasing after "little wonders" = sex, sports, acceptance, money, clothes, popularity, drugs, etc... until we can help them see that the Ultimate Wonder is what they are missing out on and the only thing that can truly satisfy them.

it's hard to live that way

this week i've been writing about the idea that love wins.

no matter what is happening in the world, in your life, and no matter what is done to you... love wins.

but it's hard to live that way. and i believe that Jesus knows better than anyone how hard this is.
because Jesus was ridiculed, hated, mocked... and He had a choice of how He would respond to all this. He chose love every time.

He could have picked up a rock and fought back. He could have spit back in their face. but He never once became the evil that was thrown at Him. You never read about Jesus saying "just give me a little time and I'll get even." He never once responds back with what's been done to Him.

and Jesus changed the world.
people who live like this... like love wins... change the world!
because love defeated evil.

& love still beats evil. evil can never beat evil. only love wins.

every time. because love never fails. it can't fail. it is incapable of failing.

somebody has to LOVE to stop the madness. there's an evil cycle and we all contribute to it when we get revenge, fight back, etc... but when we love - love wins & the evil stops. the world changes.

so yes, it's hard. but isn't it worth it to change the world. the only other alternative is the same way everyone else lives. you see where that gets us.

is the world any different because of you?

you lose

love wins.

it's that simple.

but without love... you lose.

yesterday i was diving into what this guy, Paul, said love IS. you might be surprised at how BIG love is and all that it encompasses. you can read that HERE.

but 1st, Paul lets us know that pretty much anything else doesn't matter without love.

he could speak in other human or angelic tongues... but that's just annoying noise without love.
if he could tell the future and understand pretty much everything... that's nothing without love.

he could have enough faith to literally MOVE a mountain. that would be CRAZY. maybe a little freaky, but also crazy awesome... but as cool as that would be, without love he's still nothing.

he could literally give everything he owns to help the poor... even that, without love, is worthless.

wow. so love is a pretty big deal.

if we don't love we lose. but LOVE WINS.

love is...

love is...

patient.

kind.

content.

humble.

honoring.

not all about me.

chill. (not easily angered)

forgetful. (keeps no record of wrongs)

digging truth not evil.

protecting, trusting, hopeful, persevering. it never stops.

never fails.

- Paul (1 Cor. 13)

wow. i thought love was just love.
nope.
way bigger than that.

how are you doing loving?

it's pretty important because
love wins.

The Revolution - love wins.

there are a lot more of these bumper stickers floating around today than there were yesterday.

i hope the meaning takes our city and culture by storm.

we gave a bunch of these out to the students yesterday @ Ridge as we finished up a series called "The Revolution" with a day that revolved around the phrase LOVE WINS. (Thanks, Rob, for empowering us with that phrase & letting us borrow it.)

The series was all about the Kingdom of God and what Jesus had to say about it. That's all we've talked about for a month.

it's interesting that Jesus never actually defines the Kingdom of God. He never says "the Kingdom of God is..." He only says "the Kingdom of God is LIKE..." and then He tells a story.

we tried our best to explain the Kingdom of God in 1 sentence the 1st week. our meager attempt was that "God is making everything the way God wants it to be and He wants my help."

and then it's crazy that the Kingdom of God is so OPPOSITE. but then again, that's the essence of what a revolution is. because "normal is boring. opposite is revolutionary."

and if Jesus were here today He probably wouldn't call it "the Kingdom of God". He chose that phrase because that was the hot button of the context He was in. Not sure what we would call it today, but we went with The Revolution.

because that's what it is. a revolution.

and this revolution is not for some specific place or for some specific time or in 1 compartmentalized area of our lives. it is literally "Revolution Everywhere."

yesterday in Student Impact we were brave enough to try to sum up this Revolution in 2 simple words. "LOVE WINS."

because Jesus summed it all up with "love" (Matthew 22). Paul summed it all up with "love" (1 Corinthians 13). and everything we had talked about all month long that Jesus ever said about the Kingdom of God really comes down to LOVE. love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, turn the other cheek, give, etc... etc... it's all so opposite. more of the same doesn't win. evil for evil doesn't win... love wins.

can it be possible that the most humble, vulnerable, lowliest, and seemingly "weakest" position of LOVE can actually WIN in this world we live in?

tomorrow i want to dive into some more thoughts about what Paul had to say about love when he was trying to help this group of people in Corinth live their lives as a part of The Revolution.

awe & joy & hope

(I originally posted this on August 24, 2009.)

most awesome way to start my Monday was singing this song David wrote a long time ago...

"God our Savior,
the HOPE of all the ends of the earth
and of the farthest seas,
who formed the mountains by Your power,
having armed Yourself with strength,
who stilled the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
and the turmoil of the nations.
The whole earth is filled with AWE at Your wonders;
where morning dawns, where evening fades,
You call forth songs of JOY."
- David the songwriter (Psalm 65:5-8)
beautiful. I'm stoked that God, our Savior, is the hope of all the ends of the earth! That's amazing. That's awesome. I am completely filled with awe this morning... God has captured my sense of wonder because of all his amazing wonders. This morning I am singing songs of joy. I can't hold them back.

it's all over

the Champions League Final has been over for a couple hours now. done & dusted.

The best team in the world is now crowned as the best team in the world. i was cheering against them but still appreciate how beautiful they are to watch.

i'm just thankful it's a VERY short off season. Because in August it all cranks back up. The beautiful game on display again. we only have to take June & July off from the best game ever invented.

my Geordie boys in Newcastle had what i guess they would call a successful season... even after Andy Carroll departing. i hope we can buy some STUDS with that $55 million! we need to buy 1 top class striker, a stud center back, a right back (no offense Sim), and a Keeper. + hold on to Jose Enrique and Joey Barton who both seem to be Liverpool bound if you believe the rumors.
so i'm hoping for a top 7 finish and Europa League football in 2012-13.

Roberto Martinez and Wigan are staying up too. it was a relegation battle like none other. we'll probably never see anything like it again. although i hope we do because it was unbelievably exciting!

I bet Fabregas will go to Barcelona or Real Madrid for like $80 million. it will be interesting to see what Arsenal do this summer. lots to be done for sure. i won't care very much when Fabregas is gone though. i predict that Man U wins it again next season with Liverpool, Man City, and Tottenham all really coming into their own to officially make it a BIG 6. (and hopefully Newcastle sliding into 7th.)

Barcelona will of course win the Champions League again. it's going to be a while before someone can knock them off. best chance was when Arsenal had them knocked out in the 2nd leg before the inexplicable red to RVP.

The only games left for me to watch in this season are the League Two, League One, and Championship playoff finals. those 3 will be fun. Go Stevenage & Swansea City.

very thankful for the beautiful game. it makes the world a more beautiful place.

failure & success

(when i use the word "culture" below, i'm referring to any small culture that you create = in your home, your business, your organization, your church, etc...)

if you create a culture where failure is not an option then you will find yourself with a culture where innovation and even SUCCESS are also not options.

so, if you don't allow people to fail you won't allow them to ever succeed.
i am sure i stole that from someone famous and probably jacked up the wording, but chew on that for a few days.

Risk and pushing the edges and NOT BEING AFRAID TO FAIL is a key to innovation and success! so let it happen in your culture.

in fact - encourage it!

happiness (not what you might expect)

i'm enjoying an awesome sabbath today. it's a day earlier than i expected, but also needed. i am so thankful for the simple pleasure of sabbath.

it's been quiet and i'm enjoying the SIMPLE and ORDINARY pleasures of this ordinary day. i'm keenly aware today of a bigger Presence. a God who is here. in this moment.

a God that we don't even have a name for... just titles like "God."

and i'm thankful. thankful for life and all its simple pleasures.
thankful for this sabbath to slow down and simply be present. present with an even bigger Presence. it's almost (or is) mystical.

i am SO thankful. i'm enjoying. i'm happy.

"It's not how much you have that brings happiness; it's how much you appreciate however much or little you have."

- Brian McLaren

right on.

i am here. God is here. and whether you think that is "much" or "little" i am full of appreciation, reverence, awe, wonder, joy, and happiness.

AS

On Monday i wrote a few thoughts about "a new way of believing". you should read that HERE before reading below.

So if it's about a way of "being" in the world and not just "believing" things about the world, then Peter Rollins' approach "emphasizes the priority of love: not as something which stands opposed to knowledge of God, or even as simply more important than knowledge of God, but more radically still, as knowledge of God."

love = knowledge of God

WOW! did you catch that? real, true knowledge of God = LOVE. not facts, theology, knowing stuff, reading books, having all our beliefs lined up, etc...

but LOVE is as good as it gets when it comes to knowing God.

because think about it... love is the chief thing. without love i am nothing. Jesus summed it all up with love. and GOD IS LOVE!

what better way to know someone than to become what they are?

what you do IS what you believe! (sort of part 2)

before i continue my thoughts from yesterday's post (which you can read HERE) i decided to repost these thoughts i wrote and originally posted on February 24, 2009.This is a good post to fall in between yesterday's thoughts and tomorrow's post.


(You can read "sort of part 1" HERE.)
I think orthodoxy is important. I think what we believe is important. BUT I think just because we say we believe something doesn't mean we really believe it. Just because we write something in a paper doesn't mean we believe it. Just because we write a whole book about some doctrine doesn't mean we really believe it. Just because we preach something doesn't really mean we believe it is true!

Again, many Christians put too much stock in "doctrinal statements" and having the right theology. It's like if you can just "mentally assent" to this list of statements then it's all good and you're an orthodox Christian. I think it's important for sure, but we can say we believe that stuff all we want... but if we don't live it we don't TRULY believe it!

What you do IS what you believe!

and whatever you don't do & live... you don't truly believe, no matter how much you say you do and how many books you write or sermons you preach about it.
what i'm saying is, it's WORTHLESS. Just because you have a lot of knowledge about theology means jack to God. If we don't live like Jesus it's all meaningless. We may as well have a lot of knowledge about cars or medicine or wax... it's not like knowledge about one is any better than the other IF it doesn't change the way we LIVE!

For example = I can write on this blog all the time about how much I believe God wants us to love and care for the poor and orphans. I can put it in my doctrinal statement. I can quote all the Bible verses about God loving the poor and commanding us to love the poor (like "Those who shut their ears to the cry of the poor will also cry out and not be answered." = Proverbs 21:13 and "Those who give to the poor will lack nothing, but those who close their eyes to them receive many curses." = Proverbs 28:27 and 14:31 and 28:8 and 19:17 and 22:9 and 29:7 and on & on). I can sit and debate people for hours and convince them that God commands us to care for the poor. I could be really smart & know all the biblical teaching there is to know about this topic! BUT if I didn't love and care for the poor myself, not only would I be an idiot, but I would also prove that I DON'T REALLY BELIEVE GOD WANTS ME TO LOVE THE POOR! Because if I really believed it, I would DO it.

Because what you do IS what you believe!

In "do you think Jesus really cares if you..." which was "sort of part 1" (which you can read HERE) a lot of people brought James 2 into the discussion... and rightly so, although that specific passage never crossed my mind when I was writing that post. You can read their thoughts on that passage HERE.
Speaking of James 2, I do love the verse (19) in that passage that says "You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that." haha, and I'm sure that God is very impressed with their orthodoxy!

Anyway, all the talk in the comments about James 2 made me nostalgic. I remembered the guy I used to listen to way back in the day named Rich Mullins... anybody remember him? He was different. kind of a "ragamuffin." That guy wrote some good songs. I wish he were still here and still writing.
So, there was this song I used to love to listen to by him (based on James 2). It actually didn't even have any instruments in the song. Just voices. It was kind of a goofy song honestly. but I liked it. It was called Screen Door "Faith without works is like a song you can't sing; it's about as useless as a screen door on a submarine." = Straight up worthless.

(YOUR thoughts?)

a new WAY of believing

change.

we all have to agree that there are a lot of things that NEED to change in our world.

many people simply disagree on what those changes are or how they need to be made.

it's no different in the religious community... lots of disagreement when it comes to change.
but, like it or not things ARE changing. the postmodern era is ushering in plenty of change. there seems to be a lot of talk about what we believe possibly changing.

but, what if we don't need to believe new things (as opposed to old things), just new ways to believe?

Peter Rollins says in How (Not) to Speak of God = "Instead of following the Greek-influenced idea of orthodoxy as right belief... [we need to] rediscover the more Hebraic and mystical notion of the orthodox Christian as one who believes in the right way--that is, believing in a loving, sacrificial, and Christlike manner."

This reversal from 'right belief' to 'believing in the right way' is in no way like simply doing the opposite... as Rollins puts so awesomely "for the opposite of right belief is simply wrong belief."

and that would be just plain stupid. to believe the wrong thing. no one is suggesting that.

He goes on to write...
"Thus orthodoxy is no longer (mis)understood as the opposite of heresy but rather is understood as a term that signals a way of being in the world rather than a means of believing things about the world."

YES! i LOVE that! A WAY OF BEING IN THE WORLD. not just a means of believing things about the world. because at the end of the day, who really cares what you believe if it doesn't translate into a way of being.

i wrote a whole blog series on that idea and you can see 1 part of it HERE (titled what you do IS what you believe.

so the idea is that orthodoxy is not determined by believing something but by BEING something. because anyone can mentally assent to something. that's pretty easy.
being/becoming is so much more important. some guy named Jesus said that, not me.

later this week i want to explore this further and really see the root of all this.

they found a new planet

i enjoy reading GOOD magazine fairly regularly and recently i saw an article that caught my eye.

Scientists have found a new planet not all that far away. only like 20 light years & it appears it's the 1st outside of our solar system that can sustain life.

so... of course "we" (a.k.a. humans) are sending some messages over there in case there's anyone to receive them.

here were some of my favs:

Tamasin, Australia: "If you come to Earth look into: music, the beach, ice cream, hugs, family, love, dancing, cheese, trampolines, friendship, books and dreams. Just for a start."

Otto Koivuranta, Finland: "The lust for money will be the end of earth. I hope the same thing won't happen to you."

Sergio Camalich, Mexico: "What do you see when you look up into the sky? Do you feel small and lonely, just like us? From now on, I can assure you one thing: you are not alone. Be happy."

*this next one is possibly my #1 fav...
Dr. Okowon Falafalokoronko, Nigeria: "Sir. Let’s make a deal together. I have inheritance of $25m which I need help to release.Please send your interplanetary BSB a/c details. Thankyouplease."

Pi, Australia: "3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974"

Richard, Australia: "Please understand any messages from politicians (our leaders) do not represent the rest of us. This is an Earth tradition."

Maria, Australia: "Do gyms exist where you come from??? Is there such a thing as calorie counting and body image issues ? If not please come get me ASAP PPLLLEEAASSEE"

Admiral Ackbar, Yemen: "IT'S A TRAP!"

Erik K. Veland, Australia: "Apologies in advance for most of these messages. They are an example of our primitive humour."

which of these are your fav OR WHAT MESSAGE WOULD YOU SEND?

10%

"If you put 1/10 the energy of complaining into solving the problem you would be surprised how well it works out."

- Randy Pausch

now, i think that statement is one to live by. seriously.

usually when we complain we are not thinking logically. at all. it's 100% emotional. which causes us to focus on the problem and just complain.

which does no one ANY good.
at all.

in fact it does a lot of harm most of the time.
but we don't realize it because, if you remember, we're not thinking logically.

but what if you took just 10% of that "complaining energy" and reallocated it toward solving the problem at hand... i.e. - actually doing something about it?

wow. you could be surprised.

my goal is a little different though. i think i'm a cold turkey kind of guy. forget the 10%. i want to reallocate 100% of the energy from complaining to productively working to fix, solve, create solutions.

i hope i'm surprised at how well it works out.

words women use

(This was originally posted on September 15, 2009.)

Last month Crystal and I were on vacation and ate at Hyman's Seafood in Charleston. While eating my boiled peanuts & waiting on my 3 different fish I picked up this card & read it. It was called "Words Women Use."

Fine
This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.

5 Minutes
If she is getting dressed, this is half an hour. 5 minutes is only 5 minutes if you have just been given 5 more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.

Nothing
This is the calm before the storm. This means "something," and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with "Nothing" usually end in "Fine".

Go Ahead
This is a dare, not permission. Don't do it. [She might even say "Go ahead, baby" to make the deception even greater!]

Loud Sigh
This is not actually a word, but a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A "loud sigh" means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you over "Nothing".

That's OK
This is one of the most dangerous statements that a woman can make to a man. "That's OK" means that she wants to think long and hard before deciding when you will pay for your mistake.

Thanks
A woman is thanking you. Don't question it or faint. Just say you're welcome.

So, WHICH OF THESE "WORDS" RING A BELL? ANY STORIES?
 

bad day at work? you GOTTA read this! (or even if you just want to laugh)

(This was originally written and posted to renown on August 19, 2009.)
 

I love my job. well, my main job anyway... I've got like 5 & really only like the 1 I'm passionate about! With that said I think I have something that will make your day if you hate your job OR if you had a bad day at work... OR if you are anyone else! Trust me... you want to read this for a good laugh.

"When you have had one of those take-this-job-and-shove-it-days, try this.
On your way home, stop at your pharmacy and go to the section where they have thermometers. You will need to purchase a rectal thermometer made by the Q-tip Company. Be sure that you get this brand. When you get home, lock your doors, draw the drapes, and disconnect the phone so you will not be disturbed during your therapy. Change into something comfortable, such as a sweat suit, and lie down on your bed. Open the package containing the thermometer, remove it, and carefully place it on the bedside table so that it will not become chipped or broken. Take the written material that accompanies the thermometer. As you read, notice in small print this statement: 'Every rectal thermometer made by Q-tip is personally tested.'
Close your eyes. Say out loud five times, 'Thank you, oh thank you, that I do not work in quality control at the Q-tip company."

The source for that is unknown, but it was tucked in the 1st chapter of a book I'm currently reading by Mark Buchanan called The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath. (awesome book btw).

I hope that made you laugh! That's good stuff. That's how I look at everything. I'm just an eternal optimist. I exude positivity. Maybe it's just the way God wired me or maybe the way my dad brought me up - always reminding me to look at situations positively. who knows...
funny stuff though!

quotes of the week #42

my favorite quotes of the week to share with you - 42nd edition!

“Peace begins with a smile.” – Mother Teresa 

“When coercion of any kind is used in the interests of the Christian message, the message itself is corrupted.” – Lesslie Newbigin

“But our primary role as spiritual leaders isn’t making people see eye to eye. It’s making sure our eyes are focused on Jesus.” – Mark Batterson

“Sometimes our technological expertise has seemed to top our moral capacity to use this expertise for the good of humanity. We have a capacity to feed all and yet millions starve because we seem to lack the moral and political will to do what we know is right.” – Desmond Tutu

"Leaders goal: Don't deny a person who has faithfully served your vision the right to pursue a grand vision themselves!" - Brian Houston

"When you change the heart of a parent, you affect their child or teenager in a way that is lifelong." - Reggie Joiner

“If you have to explain a part of your ministry in a paragraph instead of a sentence then it has become too complicated.” – Chris Brown

"The devil is a better theologian than any of us and is a devil still." - A.W. Tozer

"God is not an American. He made the Americans." - my 4 year old son. #proudparent

- Stephen Wagoner

do you have any favorite quotes? 

trash bags

(stats are from 2009)

1 billion people don’t have access to clean water.
The average American uses 400-600 liters per day.

Every 7 seconds, somewhere in the world a child under age 5 dies of hunger. 
Americans throw away 14% of the food we purchase.

Almost 1 billion peeps live on less than $1 a day + another 2.5 billion live on less than $2 a day. ($1 being exactly what we could really buy in our culture for $1! Truly $1)

so, more than ½ the world lives on less than $2 a day, while the average American teenager spends nearly $150 a week!

40% of people in the world lack basic sanitation, while 49 million diapers are used and thrown away in America every day.

1.6 billion have no electricity, nearly 1 billion can’t read or sign their name, nearly 1 million children are denied basic education.

by far MOST peeps in world don’t own a car = 90% of people don't have one.

But 1/3 of American families own 3 cars!

1 in 7 children worldwide (158 million) has to go to work every day just to survive.

Americans spend more annually on trash bags than nearly half of the world does on all goods!

Guilt isn't helpful. helping is helpful.

who's telling you what's next?

This was a great thing for me to read as a leader and just for my personal productivity. so, chances are it's a great thing for some of you out there to read too.

It was on Seth Godin's blog the other day. the link to the article is HERE but it's below in it's full 3 sentence entirety:

The Agenda

The job of the CEO isn't to check things off the agenda. Her job is to set the agenda, to figure out what's next.

Now that more and more of us are supposed to be CEO of our own lives and careers, it might be time to rethink who's setting your agenda.

and BOOM. 

who's telling you your agenda? who's telling you what's next?

start thinking like a CEO. look into the future. what's next? for you? and for your organization?

nobody else is going to do that for you.

party people or religious people?

(This was originally posted on June 2, 2009.)

I just wanted to share with you the coolest sentence (pretty crazy run on sentence though) that I've heard all day. I heard it while mowing my grass tonight listening to Rob Bell's series = Jesus Wants to Save Christians. This was Part 7 (I've only got 1 more talk to go in the 8 part series).

It's from a series back in the day but now there is a book of the same title (Jesus Wants to Save Christians = buy it HERE).

Anyway, here's what he said...
"By the way, a general rule of thumb - If people who want nothing to do with God and are hostile to church and are considered kind of on the margins... if they love being around you; and very wound up religious people who think that they're right and everybody else is wrong find you deeply disturbing and offensive... then you're being like Jesus."

Pretty awesome. My prayer is for Jesus to help me live this way, help me live like He did! So that the "party people"... the people who the other church peeps don't like... wanna be around me.

That's our prayer at Ridge Church. That people who don't like church would come to our church and really like it... and that God would change their world! 

wise & risky & passionate & loving

this is a little private peek into my soul. i hope it's not too personal.

wise & risky & passionate & loving.
that was my prayer this morning.

kind of random like most conversations are and those 4 things just flowed together.

i need them.

we probably all need a double dose of each. so i'm asking for them. and i'm going to keep asking for them a lot.

i do have a crazy love for people. people i see, people i know, and people half a world away that i've never met. i love them. i want the best life possible for them.
but i'm praying that God would make me MORE loving. i want a love like God has for people.

but that love in me sparks this ridiculous vision God's birthed in me for the world. audacious and ridiculous. i'm passionate to see it happen. i'm passionate to be a part of this revolutionary vision. becoming more loving makes me become more passionate.

as far as i can tell, along with more passion comes more risk. so i want to be risky. i'm asking God to make me risky... and then even riskier. i am going to need to take some serious risks in my life time. This love and this passion in me is going to require risk.

but God, please give me Your wisdom to go along with being risky. i'm begging God to make me wise. i want to be risky and wise, not risky and stupid. there's a great balance in there somewhere and i hope i can find it. i really want to be wise like the proverbs talk about. not safe, but wise.

and that's my prayer. a peek into my soul.

God, make me wise & risky & passionate & loving.

thoughts on sabbath and furious rest

(This was originally posted on June 16, 2009.)
 
I love sabbath! (sabbath = basically a day of rest each week.) I have only truly understood it for the past 4 years or so. Louie Giglio and Rob Bell, 2 of my "mentors" helped me to "get" sabbath & dive into the awesome world of practicing it.
Thankfully those 2 men helped me understand and start practicing sabbath just a few months into my marriage. I think it was divine timing! (I had never done it before.)

[*Side note story warning] In fact, I can still vividly remember the exact time when I decided to practice sabbath rest each week. I was driving in my caddy listening to a Rob Bell talk back in '05 after we had just been married. I was in the drive thru line at the McDonald's near our house picking up dinner & his whole thing had been about sabbath & I was like "you know what... I'm gonna do it." One of the best decisions I ever made.

Basically 1 day a week I try to NOT do ANY work. (Like no work for my job). I just chill. I've done that for almost 4 years. Pretty much every Friday is my "sabbath." And it also doubles as date night with my wife, Crystal. I've written about that before HERE.

Because of a super busy schedule & some extra jobs I've taken, I haven't had a sabbath in about 2 weeks. UNTIL TODAY. a Tuesday. And WOW did I need it! (That was the 1st time I've ever gone this long without one since I started.) I can tell that life gets jacked up when I don't get a day of rest each week.
[Today I just went to a late breakfast with my wife @ Sunrise... my fav breakfast joint in Charlotte where I used to go with my dad once a week when I was a kid. Then we did a little grocery shopping. Had some fun at the house. Watched a chick flick she wanted to see & now we're going to sleep. Very spiritual day.]

When I was a little kid I thought sabbath was just a Sunday thing & we weren't supposed to mow the grass or God might strike us dead with a lightning bolt. haha... but the cool part is that God started sabbath as a favor to us.

**Take the whole "God side" out of it even... it's just common sense. You will simply work better, feel better, be happier, function better, be nicer, and enjoy life more! Seriously, try it for like 4 weeks in a row. You will be amazed. You probably won't stop.

Here's some things Louie helped me understand about sabbath:
(the parts below in "quotes" are from him...)
Sabbath is “a day to remember that He is God and we are not. Without Sabbath, we forget who we are and lose sight of who He is.” That's really the heart of it.
I committed to NOT let myself “get to the place where I truly believe the outcome of the story fully depends on me.” Because that would be laughable.

*I don't know about you, but my job NEVER ends. I could work 24/7. Literally ALL the time... and there would still be more to do. I can't leave my work at the office. So when it comes to this sabbath thing for me - there's so much pressure to work on Sabbath because there's SO MUCH to do!

BUT, Louie taught me that sabbath IS RESTING in knowing that "Everything doesn’t hinge on me. If I stop doing my part, the whole world will not fall apart. I am not in control. God made the whole world in six days without any input from me, or my assistance. God doesn’t need me to accomplish His work. I am little. God is huge. I trust Him.” I love it! Sabbath is me getting to heap glory on God through proving/showing my trust in His power & sovereignty.

*When I wake up everyday (after I stumble out of bed) I seriously try to remind myself that I’ve been invited “into an already-in-progress Story in which God was doing just fine long before my little feet ever hit the floor.”
- “Sabbath happens anywhere and everywhere we let go of the controls and lay the cares of our lives at His feet." = that's a pretty simple definition for you.
[most of those quotes are from Louie's pimp book i am not but i know I AM which you can click on to the right & buy it.]

Basically we are all (myself included) arrogant. I guess it can only be our own pride that tricks us into thinking that what happens is pretty much all up to ME. How freaking arrogant is that!??? but we totally act that way don't we!? "I can't take a day off because there's TOO MUCH TO DO!" haha... there's always gonna be too much to do, SO you may as well have a nice relaxing day of rest. :)

Sabbath. It's furious rest. It's a very spiritual thing. And I refuse to trade it for any amount of $ or extra production.