Lord of the Waves

I have to admit, with preparing to speak at a retreat next weekend, having family members in town for Christmas, taking care of a sick baby, and gearing up for a new seminary semester next week, I have been a little out of touch with world events. In fact, I've been downright insensitive to them--especially to the catastrophic tsunamis in SE Asia and Africa.

My congregation supports a couple of missionaries in Africa, and our friends Russ and Rebecca Debenport are headed to Thailand in a few weeks to join a mission work there. It seems like this is something that I would have had my antenna up about, but I didn't.

I am glad others are not asleep at the wheel. The U.S.--who was recently called "stingy" for not sending enough humanitarian aid--is sending more money than any other country in the world. In fact, we are sending more government aid than all the other countries in the world combined! I'm glad to see my tax dollars go to work for something like this. In addition, the government dollars sent do not account for the additional millions that Americans will send through private humanitarian efforts.

Events like this push many of us to ask some significant spiritual questions. I wish that I could answer all of them, but no one can--at least on this side of Heaven. My friend, Edward Fudge--who has been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease--recently penned this reflection about the events in SE Asia and life and death. I don't think I could much improve his sentiment.

"This final week of 2004 has seen what is perhaps the largest natural disaster in the world's history, following an earthquake under the Indian Ocean more than 740 miles long and having the force of a million atomic bombs. The quake, which jolted the earth's rotation, spawned monster waves called tsunamis which swept across the Indian Ocean, killing (says the Associated Press) more than 44,000 people in eleven countries from Thailand to Somalia. Indeed, human life is fragile and precious, in the big picture and in our individual cases.

Immortality is Christ's accomplishment and the Christian's hope. Mortality is what I am encountering more and more frequently in daily experience. The notion that we don't have time to be sick, or that infirmity only comes to other people, quickly vanishes when illness actually strikes. The truth is that from the day we leave the womb, we are dying people living in broken bodies in a fallen world. Sickness is not the wonder. Wellness is the grace. Saying so is not yielding to morbidity but simply telling the truth.

The larger truth, as we recently reflected around the breakfast table, is that this world is preparatory to another, for which God is doing all that we will allow to get us ready. "A man's life does not consist in the accumulating of things to possess," Jesus literally said. "He is richest whose joys are most simple," wrote Thoreau, the sage of Walden Pond. I knew that when I was growing up. I don't ever want to forget it now. "Brief life is here our portion," says the 12th century hymn. "The tearless life is there." Bernard of Cluny was right about it, too.

We live, die, and meet our Maker. To the believer, that is a sweet promise, not a threat or a warning. For what makes the gospel "good news" is that our Creator God himself deeply loves us and desires our company, and that -- if we ask him -- he will be with us through life and through death, every step of the way."

© 2004 by Edward Fudge. Unlimited permission to copy without altering text or profiteering is hereby granted subject to inclusion of this copyright notice

Christmas Letter Politics

One of the best ways to gain and lose friends is to start talking politics. I'm not old enough to remember a ton of Presidential elections, but it seems from what I hear and read that this year's election was terrible divisive for the electorate.

Everywhere you turn someone is either deifying or demonizing the President and the administration. And Christians were in the middle of it. Immediately after the election, people on the left were castigating Christians for their role in re-electing the President (though I question how much a factor they/we really were), and some evangelical and politically conservative commentators were lauding the Christian community for their involvement in the electoral process.

The problem is that Christians are not a monolith. We don't all think or feel the same. I know this for two reasons: (1) I have lots of people who read this blog and blog themselves and they are as diverse as the American landscape, and (2) I get Christmas letters.

Apparently, this election was so divisive that people are still angered or overjoyed--all of it deepending on the individuals political bent--and they cannot help but express their feelings in their yearly update to friends. Rochelle and I have heard the war in Iraq described as everything from a "mess" to "righteous" and everything in between. Funny thing; Every description comes from Christians. I know many wonderful Christian people, some would argue that the ONLY correct political position for Christians is on the right, and others that would argue that a true Christian could ONLY support the left.

I'm not distressed that Christians are participating in the electoral process, but I am concerned that political parties are becoming the trademark by which some (both inside and outside Christendom) wish to brand Christianity. Truthfully, I cannot see how disciples of Jesus could find completely safe haven in either political party. I cannot honestly believe that Republicans or Democrats have mastered or monopolized the correct view of war, peace, empowerment, poverty, equality, ethics, science, religious perspective, freedom, etc...

Christians don't really need political parties--our kingdom is elsewhere. We are under the Kingdom reign of Jesus Christ. Something tells me that if we made Jesus our party affiliation we might be better in the way we handle our politics.

Need to Read

The end of the year is approaching, so we will all soon be overwhelmed with "Year's Best" and Year In Review" television shows and print articles. Before America's media machine gets cranking up and churning out list after list, here's my list of books you ought to read in '05.

"We Are All the Same: A Story of a Boy's Courage and a Mother's Love" by James Wooten

"More Ready Than You Realize"--Brian McLaren

"A New Kind of Christian" --Brian McLaren

"A Year with C.S. Lewis" ed. Patricia S. Klein

"The Preaching Life" --Barbara Brown Taylor

"Ancient Israel: From Abraham to the Roman Destruction of the Temple" ed. Hershel Shanks

"The Divine Conspiracy"--Dallas Willard

In the coming days, you might want to pick up one of the great reads. Trust me, you will be blessed by it!

500 Greatest

One of our church members brought me a copy of Rolling Stone magazine yesterday. This particular issues was dedicated to the 500 greatest songs of all time. Truthfully, I could not disagree with much of the list, but I do have a few problems it.

The first MAJOR flaw is that there is not a single Rush song on the list. Come on, they've got a ton of songs that most of us have never heard of, but not one song from one of the biggest selling bands of all time! This is a continuation of some people's animosity toward the Canadian rockers. A few years ago, an executive for the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame stated that Rush would, "never be in the hall of fame." What's the deal? Check out records sales and tour success; How can you leave out Rush? Weezer may the list for goodness sakes, but not Rush!?

Secondly, Bob Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone" was named number one. You gotta be kidding me. Every other song in the top ten should have come before Dylan's half-drunk sounding, unintelligible lyrics! How transparent is it that a magazine named 'Rolling Stone' selected a song entitled 'Like A Rolling Stone'? Rolling Stone's number one song is Like a Rolling Stone. Can we all say "Shameless Promotion."

I know it takes a lot of thought and bargaining to come up with such an extensive list. I couldn't do it--at least without much inner turmoil. Instead of trying to come up with a list of 500 songs, I thought I would drop you list of my top ten pop bands/artist of all time in random order.

• The Beatles
• The Four Tops
• The Temptations
• The Jackson Five/ Michael Jackson
• Rush
• Creedence Clearwater Revival
• U2
• Sam Cooke
• Harry Conick Jr.
• The Doors

What do you think? Send me your list in the comments section.

A Little R & R

This week, Rochelle, and I got to spend a few days with her oldest and dearest friend, Rebecca, and her husband, Russ. Russ and Rebecca are traveling across the lower United States to say "goodbye." On January 22, they will leave their lives in the U.S. to spread life in a foreign country--they are becoming missionaries in Thailand!

A few summers ago they spent some time in Thailand with a mission team there, now they are going back to be a part of a tremendous work that shares the love of Jesus in country that is 95% Buddhist; talk about being outnumbered!

Rochelle and I are both excited for them and jealous of them; they are embarking on an adventure of Biblical proportions. Our hope is to be able to cobble enough money together in the next 6 months to go and visit with them.

I want all of you to be praying for Russ and Rebecca. They are wonderful people, who need and deserve your support. If you're not already too drenched from your web surfing, check out their blog: http://russandrebecca.blogspot.com/ In January you will also be able to follow their actions more closely at www.russandrebecca.com Rochelle and I got to see the mock-ups for their site. It's going to be awesome--just like they are.

The Death of Christmas

I have heard a lot of Christmas talk the last few days. Oh, not for the reasons that you might think. It's not because sleigh bells are ringing, or the stockings are hung by the chimney with care. It's not even because the "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" TV special celebrated it's 40th anniversary this year. The reason I'm hearing so much about Christmas is because many folks are upset that some companies, corporation, and constituencies are no longer calling Christmas "Christmas."

The trend--and you might be seeing this in your hometown--is for institutions to move away from saying "Merry Christmas" to the more general and--if I dare say--politically correct, "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings." Apparently this is upsetting to many people. They think Christmas should simply be Christmas, not something else.

As a Christian minister, I think the "Happy Holidays/Season's Greeting" people have a point. But so do the "Merry Christmas" folks.

This year the Macy's/Rich's/etc...Company is not allowing any signs in their stores wishing their patrons "Merry Christmas." But I wonder what will happen on December 26? I bet they'll have an "after Christmas" sale. The companies motives here are financially driven. They want the Hanukkah, Kwanza, secular crowd to shop before Christmas with inclusivity, yet they will want those post-Christmas Christian dollars as well. The policy seems to fit the finances. But what else would you expect from a business except to try and make money? That's why they exist.

But how far will the anti-Christmas movement go? Christmas is a national holiday. Hanukkah and Kwanza are not. Will we soon be seeing schools only giving students a few days for Christmas rather than 10 days? I'm guessing the teachers unions will have something to say about that. Or will students be dismissed from school at the outset of Hanukkah and come back after Christmas? What about Ramadan? Perhaps students will be dismissed from school according to the faith if the individual? That will surely make for cohesive, coherent learning. But is that the concern of some Christians?

So, what are Christians so upset about? Why does it matter if you get a "Merry Christmas" with your "HO-HO-HO"? The best I can come up with is that they feel that the death of "Christmas" is yet another repositioning of Christian values and beliefs to the outside of the American mainstream.

It might surprise you to hear me say this, but I don't think the practice of Christianity should necessarily be in the mainstream. Sure, people should practice their faith and work to further their beliefs, but everyone is not a Christian. They have never been and that day is not soon coming. And just because some shopping store constructs a Christmas tree and sells Nativity sets doesn't mean the owners and employees of that store are welcoming the birth and reign of Christ into their lives. And in some way that is good.

Kierkegaard was right when he said, "In a country where everyone is a Christian, no one is a Christian." For years I participated in Christmas celebrations without the first thoughts about Christ. No once did I think about the power, hope, and sacrifice seen through the advent. It was for me--as it is to so many others--just another holiday.

The gift of the anti-Christmas movement is that it encourages Christians--and quite naturally, only Christians--to celebrate the holiday as a religious holiday. We cannot assume that our neighbors are celebrating Christmas, but we might be able to accentuate the ways we celebrate Christmas. The holiday can now be purely seen as the incarnation of Christ and God's plan to redeem His people. The plan is for everyone, but celebrated by those who have accepted it. The acceptance of God's plan makes us different. It makes Christmas special.

My agnostic neighbor, though his house is covered with snowmen and lights, does not experience Christmas the same way I do. It has a different, deeper meaning for me. Christmas at my house is a time to be merry, indeed. To him it's the gift-exchanging holiday. Christians have always been called to be "set-apart" and we can't rightly do that and be the mainstream at the same time.

It matters less to me that a cashier at the store says, "Merry Christmas" than it does that Christians understand "Merry Christmas." If people choose the celebrate Christmas in a secular way, what difference does it make if they celebrate Christmas or Kwanza? The death of Christmas may be the very thing Christians need for the holiday to live again.

It is in that spirit that I say to faithful followers of Christ, "Merry Christmas." And to those still searching for enough relics of divine goodness to accept Christ, "Happy Holidays."

The Other Guys

I've recently returned to a book that I had to set aside due to time. It's Brian McLaren's A New Kind of Christian. The book describes the spiritual journey of two friends, one formerly in ministry and the other desperately looking to get out or find a new way to bring authenticity and meaning to the practice of religion that has grown stale to him--and many others.

Here are some insightful words from one of their conversations concerning Christian's approach to those of other faiths: "...when it comes to other religions, the challenge in modernity was to prove that we're right and they're wrong. But I think we have a different challenge in postmodernity. The question isn't so much whether we're right but whether we're good. And it strikes me that goodness, not just rightness, is what Jesus said the real issue was--you know, good trees produce good fruit, that sort of thing. If we Christians would take all the energy we put into proving we're right and others are wrong and invested that energy in pursuing and doing good, somehow I think more people would believe that we are right."

5 More Things I Think I Think

1. Blogging regularly is more difficult than it looks. "Sure," you say, "all it is is typing on a keyboard." You're right, it is just typing, but you have to have time to type and something to say. Lately, I've had neither.

2. A Fight in an NBA Basketball game that ranges into the stands where fans--deservedly--get punched does make the early basketball season interesting. I typically don't get into basketball until Christmas, but the brawl between the Pistons and the Pacers Friday night got me interested. I'm sold out for basketball now. Ron Artest is suspended for the season (which is good because he wanted some time off to promote his new rap CD), and the Pacers are essentially sunk this year. Of course, no players should ever go into the stands, but fans have got to get themselves in check too. This year in sports has witnessed fans throwing batteries, taunting players about their personal lives, and spitting onto the field of play. In some ways I think it's good that players have responded--though their lawyers and checkbooks would disagree. Nowhere else in society can you openly taunt someone, throw plastic bottles filled with rocks, or spit at someone without the risk of taking a right hook to the chin.

3. Your parents forget how they parented you when they become grandparents. When your parents become grandparents all those lessons about responsibility and accountability go away. For their grandchildren, it's all about "What the baby wants." My daughter turned one last Friday and both Grandma and Nana were in town over the weekend. Do I need to say more about this? Someone got spoiled this weekend and it wasn't me.

4. If you're planning on playing golf for the first time in 7 months, it will rain. I was planning on taking some of my vacation time today. I'm not. Enough said.

5. God is better to me than I deserve. Like I said earlier, Friday was my daughter's first birthday. She is incredible. My wife is amazing. I'm running out of words to describe how great they are. God has been good to me.

Lions, Lambs, and Dogs!

Things were just a little bit quieter at our house this morning. I first noticed the beam of daybreak when my alarm clock went off. That hasn't happened in over two years. I used to see first morning's light when our dog, Ralph lifted his front paws to the edge of our bed, his eyes saying that it was time to get up and go out back. Ralph's bladder was not as sturdy as mine. By 5:30 a.m. he needed to go out for some relief.

Those mornings are over now. Ralph won't jump in the bed to let us know of God's renewed mercies through the coming of a new day. My heart is filled with an altogether different mourning now.

You see, 10 months ago, God defied doctors beliefs and distributed divine blessings on our house through the birth of our daughter, Malia Rose. She is an angel in babies clothing! We prayed for her for years and she is more and better than we ever could have imagined. She is an incredible baby. She is sweet, she is cute, she is pure, she is adventurous...but she is also vulnerable.

And yesterday, in the blink of an eye, our normally playful, peaceful dog, Ralph, bit her on the face.

The decision we had to make was easy. He had to go! As a friend told me this morning, "We love our dogs, but we love our daughters more." Making the decision was terrible! I have never cried so many tears. Even now they flow.

It would be easy to say a lot of negative things about having a dog like Ralph. He had been abandoned by his first owners, so he was very needy. He was growing older and sicker, so he threw up on the carpet often. He barked for hours when anyone came within 20 feet of our house. All of those things are true, and were at times annoying, but the thing that is truest about Ralph is simple: He was my friend!

Every time I was sick and confined to the house and bed, there was Ralph with his cold, wet nose nuzzled comfortably next to my arm. When Malia was a newborn and awoke several times in the night, Ralph was by my side as we rocked her back to sleep. Every moment of this year's meager sunlight has been refreshed by Ralph's beagle-brown-brilliant eyes.

He was my friend. I will miss him!

Most of the time, in this space on the web, I like to make spiritual applications about things. Not today. It's not that there aren't any, I just can't think of them today.

But on second thought, I want my little corner of the web to be about "Seeking Relics of Divine Goodness." That's what Ralph was--an artifact of God's goodness. I hate the fact that my dog--in the end--was a dog. He is supposed to bite stuff from time to time. But I'm reminded of another time, before Adam and Eve's fruitful day, when all was peace. And I look forward to the time when that peace will return, when the lion will lie down with the lamb. When the baby will lie down with the beagle.

Like I said to Ralph yesterday, shortly before we drove away from the Bluebonnet Beagle Rescue, "I'll see you in heaven."

A big chunk of my day everyday is eaten up by reading. Either my nose is hidden behind graduate school books, tucked into literature for study for classes I'm teaching or preparing, or digesting really important periodicals like Sports Illustrated.

Fortunately, every now and then I will read a paragraph that is so bold, so poetic, so profound and so refreshing that it stops me in my tracks. I found one of those paragraphs in Barbara Brown Taylor's, The Preaching Life.

She writes...

"To believe that (that God wants to have a relationship with us) is an act of faith--not a one-time decision, but a daily and sometimes hourly choice to act as if that were true in spite of all evidence to the contrary. Sometimes it feels like pure make-believe. I read the weekend newspaper, full of stories about violence, addiction, corruption, disaster, and I wonder whom I kidding. Or my own life begins to spring leaks and I lie awake in the middle of the night faint with fear. I want a safer world, I want a more competent God. Then I remember that God's power is not a controlling but a redeeming power--the power to raise the dead, including those who are destroying themselves--and the red blood of belief begins to return to my veins. I have faith. I lose faith. I find faith again, or faith finds me, but throughout it all I am grasped by the possibility that it is all true:I am in good hands; love girds the universe; God will have the last word."

5 Things I Think I Think

Borrowing from the column title of one of my favorite sportswriters, Peter King, I thought I might jot down, 5 Things I Think I Think.

1. The Major League Baseball Playoffs are some of the most dramatic theatre known to man. Here in Houston, you cannot escape the buzz of the Astros verses Atlanta Braves playoff series. The series is tied 1-1, with the games coming to Houston this weekend. I want the Astros to do well, but come on, I'm a lifelong Atlanta Braves fan. I knew the Braves starting lineup before I could walk. At present, a Chipper Jones bobble-head doll adorns one of my office bookshelves. At any rate, every pitch in the post-season carries sumo-like weight, which is what makes the playoffs so much fun. I think I'll be happy either way the Houston-Atlanta series ends: Go Braves!

2. People Don't Read Enough. It's not that people are illiterate or don't enjoy reading. People read, but few stay in the message of a book until it has a chance to affect them. In Christian literature everyone is so concerned with reading the next hot book that in a year's time most have forgotten the core message of the first book they read. Here's something to try out: The next book you read that affects your spiritual walk, live in it for a while, ruminate on it, and then read it again. Lessen your quantity, increase your quality.

3. Coke is Better Than Pepsi. Pepsi is nasty. Enough said!

4. 'The Princess Bride' is One of the Best Movies Ever! I saw it as a junior high student and have loved it ever since. No movie--other than 'Tombstone'--provides so many recognizable one liners ("Never go up against a Sicilian when death is on the line.")

5. Election Years Bring Out the Best in America and the Worst in People. We have a tremendous right in this country--we can select our governmental leaders. America is a beacon for freedom. Elections serve to remind us of all the blessings of freedom and makes us mindful of all peoples who suffer under dictators and/or unjust system. Somehow, however, elections bring out the worst in people. Friends fight over this candidate or that issue. What's more, it gets ugly! Lines are drawn, factions gathered, enemies identified and opposition demonized. I just think that there must be a way for our disagreements--serious as they are, I'm not naive--could be dealt with in a more straightforward, intellectually honest, civil way. I just want to remind all of us who hold claim to the cross of Jesus: Civil participation is wonderful and needed, but let's be mindful of the apostle Peter's urging that we live as "aliens and exiles" in this world. Our citizenship is elsewhere.

Students of the Word

My eyes have glossed over many interesting words the last few weeks. One of the constants of graduate school is that you have more to read than you ever could. This is even more true when, like me, you are simultaneously serving a church full-time. But, alas, reading is part of the game when you enter ministry--what Fred Craddock called, "a lifetime of study."

Interestingly enough though, much of the reading done in theology isn't at all about upholding the Bible. In fact, much of it seems determined to disprove the claims of the Biblical text. Fair enough, believers need to be capable of mounting a rigorous defense of their faith. But what astonishes me is the copious amount of writings concerning the faith have so little faith themselves.

Guess what Mr. Dr. EgyptologistArcheoligistTheologianExcavationist, I never thought you COULD historically prove every event in the Bible. I never would have tried. Perhaps I'm naive, but I have always thought that faith actually meant FAITH. I've believed that at some point all of us--even those who choose not to believe in God--have to have faith that there was something in pre-existence. I've come to believe that trying to explain God, lessens Him. And it can't help but lessen our experience of Him.

I think more students of God's word would be wise to take head of these words of warning from Soren Kierkegaard: "If you are a scholar, remember that if you do not read God's Word in another way (a faith full way), it will turn out that after a lifetime of reading God's Word many hours every day, you nevertheless have never read--God's Word. Then make the distinction (in addition to the scholarly reading), so that you will also really begin to read God's Word or at least will confess to yourself that you, despite daily scholarly reading of it, are not reading God's Word, that you do not want anything to do with it at all."

My Personal Jesus.

Today in history, Laszlo Toth, a 33-year-old Australian geologist, slipped into St. Peter's Basilica in Rome as part of the crowd attending the Whitsunday Mass. As the faithful waited for the Pope's blessing, Toth dashed past the guards, vaulted a marble balustrade, and attacked Michelangelo's Vatican Pieta with a sledgehammer, shouting "I am Jesus Christ!" With fifthteen blows (one for each minute of his fame), he removed the Virgin's arm at the elbow, knocked off a chunk of her nose, and chipped one of her eyelids.

This bit of news reminds me that all of us, at one time or another, wants to be our own personal Jesus. Not many of us would be crazed enough to attempt to destroy a priceless piece of art. Or would we?

I wonder what it means when we try to run our own lives, to live as if we are the ones in charge? What damage do we do to ourselves and others, when we try to manage and control life, hoping that the world will bow to our will. I don't know about you, but when I have tried to run my own life, the results have not been that good. I have often chiseled and hammered away at the people and things that were meant to bring glory and beauty to my life. Too many times I've tried to be my own personal Jesus.

When God created us, he did create a work of art. The apostle Paul, commented that we are God's "workmanship." The Greek word is "poiema," which can be translated "work of art."

The wonder of Michaelangelo's Vatican Pieta is that no matter how chiseled and damaged, it remains a priceless piece of art. In the eyes of the world, the damaged caused by Laszlo Toth, has not diminished the Pieta's beauty.

Fortunately for us, the damage we cause ourselves doesn't change the way God sees us. We are still His work of art!

Now That's A Wedding!

You gotta love Britney Spears. I have always had a special place in my heart for Britney. I'm not sure why. Sure she dresses a little, um, risque--what my mother-in-law would call "trashy". And it's obvious that the girl has never sang a live note in her life--she's taken lipsyncing to a new level. I even saw five minutes of concert footage of her sitting behind a piano. We all know she can't play the piano! But her weekend wedding is the best thing she has ever done!

She, and new hubby, Kevin Federline--who has recently had a child with another woman--were married this weekend in a quickie ceremony in the house of her wedding planner. (How much do you get paid to plan THAT?) In the wedding, the bride wore a strapless satin gown and the groom wore a traditional tuxedo. But that's just the beginning!

After the five-minute ceremony, Britney's maids donned hot-pink track suits emblazoned with "Hot Mama" on the back. Not to be topped Federline, and groomsmen draped on their own tracksuit which read "Pimp", with Federline's reading "Pimp Daddy." And just when you thought the jumpsuits were the best part, for the reception, the couple served chicken fingers and ribs.

That's AWESOME! It all goes to prove: "You can take the girl out of Louisiana..."

Don't get me wrong, I was raised, for a while, in Mississippi. I've been to luxury occasions. Luxury meaning chicken fingers and ribs! I know where Britney is coming from. This is a wedding I can relate to.

I cannot, however, relate to her first wedding earlier this year. If you remember, Britney and Jason Alexander (a hometown friend, not 'George' from Seinfeld) were married in Las Vegas after a night of drinking and stupidity. 55 hours later the union was dissolved. At that vaunted occasion the bride wore a baseball cap and torn jeans down the aisle.

I know what you're thinking: "Britney is classy."

Oddly enough, though, Britney's weddings makes me think of our relationship with God. One of the strongest metaphors in the Bible is that of God romancing us and taking us as his beloved. Unlike Britney, though, it is not a casual affair. He knows that we will not always take him seriously. He knows that we will turn and leave and run to other lovers. He knows that sometimes we make commitments to him, only to want to escape them 55 hours later. Yet he remains steadfast. He remains faithful, even when we are not. God is madly in love with you. He has chosen to be--to keep the metaphor--"married" to you.

I love these words from John Eldredge: "God created us for intimacy with him. When we turned our back on him he promised to come for us. He sent personal messengers; he used beauty and affliction to capture our hearts. After all else failed, he conceived the most daring of plans. Under the cover of night he stole into the enemy's camp incognito, the Ancient of Days disguised as a newborn...What he is after is us--our laughter, our tears, our dreams, our fears, our heart of hearts."

Isn't that incredible? God wants to be with you, not for what you can do, but just for you.

Now that's a wedding!

Blog! Blog! Blog!

Okay! I know, I know. I need to blog more often. For a while, I stopped writing as frequently because I thought no one was reading. Then some odd things began to happen.

First, I started to get emails from people regarding the blog. They were actually reading it! And they were responding to it. I thought the clicks of my keyboard formed words that slowly dissipated into an internet worm-hole. Who would have guessed that people were reading? I was really blown away when I began to hear from people that I did not even know. Talk about cranking up the pressure--now I had to write AND say something constructive!

Second, I was visiting with a group of ministers and they began to tease me about how seldom I wrote. Some told me that they referred people to the site. I was floored by that too. I thought, my mother doesn't read the blog often, who else would?

But finally, last week took the cake! I was speaking at a church across town. I left early anticipating typical Houston traffic. Fortunately, I arrived on-time, early in fact. As I entered the building, I saw a bulletin board in the hallway leading to the worship center. There was one, lone posting on the bulletin board. You guessed it, it was an article from my blog. I joked with the worship minister that they had just put the article there that day, since they knew I was coming. He said, "Oh, no. That's been there for a while." "Wow!" I said to myself, "Okay, God, I get the message. People are reading this thing, so I need to write."

So here's my pledge. I will try to write more often, if you all continue to read. Don't be bashful about dropping in a comment or sending me an email. Those things let me know that you are out there reading. Just be nice. On the occasions when my mother does read the blog, she should see good things about her son. A few times a week I while try and let the blog community know what I'm thinking and praying about. Feel free to share yourself too.

I hope you are all blessed by the use of this internet space. And I pray that God continue to touch your lives.

In Earnest

Well, football season begins in earnest tonight. Sure there have already been a bunch of college games that count, pro-football too. The New England Patriots pulled out a great win against the Indianapolis Colts last night, but football really starts tonight!

"What's happening tonight?" you ask. Florida State goes against the Miami hurricanes in the Orange Bowl (7pm Eastern). Those who know me well, know my great love for Florida State football. They are my team! Growing up on the coast of Mississippi there were two great things to root for: the Atlanta Braves--who were brought to us nightly courtesy of TBS The Superstation--and the closest good college football team, the Florida State Seminoles.

I been with FSU through a lot. We've won National Championships together, and we've lost them together. I will always remember FSU's national championship win over Nebraska and unfortunately I will always remember the loss to Oklahoma. The one constant through the ten plus top-ten season finishes for my Seminoles has been head coach Bobby Bowden.

Some people criticize Bobby. They say that his Southern Baptist, grace-orientation allows his players to be too free and they wish he had a tighter clamp on his students. Others say he doesn't really coach and that he's really the CEO of the 'Noles. Still some believe that he's getting too old to coach a bunch of teenagers and young twenty-something. But I don't! I love Bobby Bowden! Well, at least as much as you can love someone that you don't really know and have never spoken with.

I was reminded of my affection for Bowden this last week. As many of you know, the state of Florida has undergone a massive torrent of rain, storms, and hurricanes over the last month. At present, hurricane Ivan is bearing down on Florida. If it hits Florida, it will be the third hurricane to make landfall there in just over three weeks. I can't imagine the devastation and loss of property and life Floridians have experienced. Bobby Bowden can!

Coach Bowden lost his grandson, Bowden Allen Madden, last week in a hurricane related accident. Bowden Allen and his father--Bobby's former son-in-law, John Allen Madden--were killed in an auto accident. They were hit broadside by a utility truck on slippery Interstate 10, skidded across the median, and slammed into on-coming traffic. Both were immediately killed. The grandson, Bowden, shared his grandfather's love of football. The 15 year-old student played center at Chactawhatcee High School.

Unfortunately, it often takes devastating events like hurricanes to help us put life into perspective. I'm not sure how much the Bowden family cares about another win tonight as Bobby quickly approaches the college mark for the most wins. I'm not sure that I care either. I like football, but it is people we care for in earnest. Tonight, I will be once again cheering for Coach Bowden as I have done hundreds of time, but in a different way than I ever have before.
Tonight, not just my hopes, but my heart will go out to the Bowden's. And regardless of which team you cheer for, I hope your heart goes out to them too. Go 'Noles!

Lies We Believe

I recently read this quick thought from Marsha Marks' book, If I Ignore it It will Go Away and Other Lies I thought Were True. I thought you might enjoy it. The chapter is entitled "If God is pleased with me, I won't have hard times."

"A man named Jesus said he was God's son. And once, when Jesus was on earth, people saw a dove come down from heaven and go to Jesus and a voice said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." And it seemed to everyone who reported the story later that God was saying Jesus was very pleasing to him.

Yet, Jesus, as it is written, was mocked, spit on, beat down, and homeless, and he died in a place usually reserved for criminals, so I think that pretty much shoots down the lie that God won't allow hard times to come to those who please him."

New Kinds of Christians

As usual, I have been thinking and reading about some things that are bound to get me in trouble. Much of my thinking and reading lately has centered on the church: her mission, the means, her purpose, her dying and ways she can thrive. I have come to realize that church must be more engaging of culture, more relevant to people's lives, more preoccupied with the Biblical text than propriety, more relational and more embracing of the elements of post-modernism that will help her reach into culture and draw people to Christ, and how she can loosen the strangle-hold that modernity has put on her.

Recently, I read these words from Brian D. McLaren's book, A New Kind of Christian.
"...our whole approach to Christianity is so conditioned by modernity. What do we think of when we think of theology? We think in Latinate terms like omnipotence, omnipresence, and immutability. We think of an analytical outline, where theology is divided up into many other "ologies": soteriology, hamartiology, eschatology, and so on. It's a dissection of God--a "theosection." It strikes me how rare these kinds of words, outlines, and dissective ways of thinking are in the Bible, which preoccupies itself with earthly stories rather than airy abstractions, wild poetry rather than tidy systems, personal and contextual letters rather than timeless, absolute pronouncements or propositions. I have often wondered, Why doesn't the Bible consist of an ordered schema, like the average curriculum of a seminary? Of course, I'm not against our systematic theologies. I'm beginning to see them an artifact of worship from the modern era, no less sincere or magnificent than medieval cathedrals--in fact, you could call them modern conceptual cathedrals. Rather than condemning, I am simply noticing that out systematic theologies are themselves a modern phenomenon. Medieval theologians had different questions, concerns, and approaches; so did ancient ones and biblical writers and characters."

Open Letter

I, like most people, have my own thoughts and views about politics. And in an election year, who doesn't? But unless you're married to me, or happen to be in my living room at the moment an election-related news story is reported, you probably won't hear those views.

Celebrities, however, feel no need to keep their political views confined to marital relations (though if they did most celebrities would still have several people to tell), or their living room (they're so used to being in our living rooms, I guess they feel at home). So, without commentary on the content of celebrity advocacy, here is my open letter to ALL celebrities.

Dear Celebrity,

I don't really care all that much about what you think. Your thoughts on global warming, the economy, the war in Iraq, school uniforms, gun control, affirmative action, and anything else you care to speak out on couldn't concern me less. Don't be offended, my neighbor has political views--I don't care what he thinks either.

Yes, I agree that you have a right to advocate what you believe in. We all do, and we all should at times. But just because you can sing or act or dance or direct or write doesn't make your mind the epicenter for all wisdom. My best friend from high school can juggle. I don't call him to ask how to vote.

For some reason, Celebrity, you've convinced us that you're smarter and more informed than the "average" American. And it's true that there are people who equate your financial success and fame with some special acumen.  We tell ourselves, "The Terminator made a lot of money, so Arnold will be a great Governor," or "Barbara Streisand sings pretty, she must be right about gay-marriage." But that's not true, is it?

The never-ending cycle of marriage, divorce, and remarriage is enough to let us know that you don't have life all figured out. The drug rehabs, the spousal abuse, the anorexia, and "I want a bigger contract" mentality are prevalent enough to show us that your lives, while more glamorous than most, aren't all that different.

In fact, if the crack journalism of the E! True Hollywood Story can be believed, you all are more frightened, more self-centered, more hurt, and more damaged than many of us.

I suppose much of your rampant talk, Celebrity, can be reduced to a world and culture that almost begs you to say something. Saying something is okay, provided that you think before you speak. And provided that sometimes you just listen, and don't speak at all.

The New Testament writer, James, had something profound to say about speaking. Whether you trust in God's Word or not, I think you'll find wisdom in these words: "let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak."

Isn't that something, the idea the what you speak might be more thoughtful if you listen to someone else speak first? It's an interesting concept, that what you say may be more reflective if not spoken from a quick reflex.

Hollywood Celebrity, you might want to listen to those words. You may consider them before you bash the President or castigate the person who wants to be President. Listening first might cross your mind the next time you get the urge to post your opinion on your website or do an interview with 20/20.

You can always tell yourself that if you don't have a script then you aren't required to say anything. You might want to become a person that is quick to listen and slow to speak. As a matter of fact, all of us who live outside of Hollywood might want to be slow to speak too.

Live Your Adventure,
Sean Palmer

PS. Let me know what you think. I'm ready to listen.

Out-Of-Control

In a world, and especially a church world, that loves control, I'm falling more out-of-control. I love it! Everyday, I experience more deeply the fact that control is an illusion. Worse yet, control is often a thinly veiled disguise for Godlessness. Sadly, in churches, the people who seem most in control seem the most spiritual. That too is an illusion.
 
When I'm tempted to take my life's horse by the reins, I re-visit these words from Leonard Sweet's "A Magna Charta of Trust by an Out-of-Control Disciple."
 
"I am part of the Church of the Out-of-Control. I once was a control junkie, but now am an Out-of-Control Disciple. I've given up my control to God. I trust and obey the Spirit. I've jumped off the fence, I've stepped over the line, I've pulled out all the stops, I'm holding nothing back. There's no turning back, looking around, slowing down, backing away, letting up, or shutting up. It's life Against the Odds, Outside the Box, Over the Wall, the game of life played Without Goal Lines other than "Thy Will Be Done..."
 
I'm done lapdogging for the topdogs, the wonderdogs, the overdogs, or even the underdogs. I'm done playing According to the Rules, whether it's Robert's Rules of Order or Miss Manner's Rules of Etiquette or Martha Stewart's Rules of Living or Louis Farrakhan's Rules of America's Least Wanted or Merril Lynch's Money-minding/Bottom-lining/Ladder-climbing Rules of America's Most Wanted.
 
I am not here to please the dominant culture or to serve any all-show/no-go bureaucracies. I live to please my Lord and Savior. My spiritual taste-buds have graduated from fizz and froth to Fire and Ice. Sometimes I'm called to sharpen the cutting edge, and sometimes to blunt the cutting edge. Don't give me that old-time religion. Don't give me that new-time religion. Give me that all-time religion that's as hard as rock and as soft as snow.
 
I've stopped trying to make life work, and started trying to make life sing. I'm finished with second-hand sensations, third-rate dreams, low-risk high-rise trades and goose-stepping, flag-waving crusades. I no longer live by and for anything but everything God-breathed, Christ-centered, and Spirit-driven.
 
I can't be bought by any personalities or perks, positions or prizes. I won't give up, though I will give in... to openness of mind, humbleness of heart, and generosity of spirit. When short-handed and hard-pressed, I will never again hang in there. I will stand in there, I will run in there, I will pray in there, I will sacrifice in there, I will endure in there-- in fact I will do everything in there but hang. My face is upward, my feet are forward, my eyes are focused, my way is cloudy, my knees are worn, my seat uncreased, my heart burdened, my spirit light, my road narrow, my mission wide.
 
I won't be seduced by popularity, traduced by criticism, by hypocrisy, or trivialized by mediocrity. I am organized religion's best friend, and worst nightmare. I won't back down, slow down, shut down, or let down until I'm preached out, teached out, healed out or hauled out of God's mission in the world entrusted to members of the Church of the Out-of-Control... to unbind the confined, whether they're the downtrodden or the upscale, the overlooked or the underrepresented.
 
My fundamental identity is as a disciple of Jesus--but even more, as a disciple of Jesus who lives in Christ, who doesn't walk through history simply "in his steps," but seeks to travel more deeply IN HIS SPIRIT.
 
Until he comes again or calls me home, you can find me filling not killing time so that one day he will pick me out in the lineup of the ages as one of his own. And then... it will be worth it all... to hear these words, the most precious words I can ever hear:
 
'Well done, thou good and faithful... Out-of-Control Disciple.'"

Quick Quote

I've had to do a lot of running around lately, so I have not been able to blog much--well, not at all.  So, for the sake of keeping up, here goes!
 
Over the last few years I have come to an ever-deepening conviction that church life should be marked by communal living as much, if not more so, as anything else. The problem is that community forces us to become exposed and vulnerable. Not ever having had true, deep community we don't know, or have wide distrust, of whether or not it is worth it.
 
I'm provoked by these words from Jean Vanier. "Community is a place of pain, of death of ego. In community, we are sacrificing independence and the pseudo-security of being closed up. We can only live this pain if we are certain that for us being in community is our response to a call from God. If we do not have this certitude, then we won't be able to stay in community."

In Atlanta

This next week I will be with a gorup of great teens ministering in inner-city Atlanta. I will try to keep you posted on stuff, but make no promises. God Bless you.

While I'm away, check this teaser from John Eldredge's upcoming book, "Epic".

Simple. Glory.

I've been spending a lot of time thinking, writing, and praying about the glory that God has bestowed on humans. I like these words from Dallas Willard about the 'habitation of the eternal.'

"The obviously well kept secret of the 'ordinary' is that it is made to be a receptacle of the divine, a place where the life of God flows....A Huston Smith remarks, 'Just as science has found the power of the sun itself to be locked in the atom, so religion proclaims the glory of the eternal to be reflected in the simplest elements of time: a leaf, a door, an unturned stone.' It is of course, reflected as well in complicated entities, such as galaxies, music, mathematics, and persons...This is why everyone, from the smallest child to the oldest adult naturally wants in some way to be extraordinary, outstanding, making a unique contribution...We were built to count, as water is made to run downhill. We are placed in a specific context to count in ways no one else does. That is our destiny." (The Divine Conspiracy)

Happy Birthday

Today is my 30th birthday. At 12:45 pm, 30 years ago in Jackson, Mississippi my mother finally got tired of carting me around. George Herbert once said, "I cried when I was born and every day shows why."

I suppose that many people feel that way, but I'm not one of them. Sure, like most people, I have been impaled with more than enough of life's daggers. We've all experienced pain and disappointment that sometimes make us question what is the point of living. But all in all I have more to be pleased about in life than displeased.

I have a wonderful, thoughtful, beautiful wife. I have been blessed with a visitor from heaven in the form of a little girl, my daughter, Malia Rose. I have good parents, a sacrificial grandmother and a kind mother-in-law. God gave me a fun-loving, tender-hearted brother, who I don't talk to enough. I minister to a church that loves me, though I cannot for the life of me understand why. I am friends with some of the most astute, spiritual men and women in the world. Rochelle and I aren't rich, but we have blessings and gifts so innumerable that I can't begin to understand why God has given us so much.

A birthday is a nice event if for no other reason than to awaken us to the gifts we've already been given. Gifts that don't come in a box with ribbons and wrapping paper, but the ones that last, the ones that count, the ones all of us want anyway.

God has never given me prosperity, but he has given me people. And when you think about it, aren't they what you want to live another year for anyway?

The Glory of Your Life!

I used this quote in my sermon this week. It was attributed to Nelson Mandela, but I have since learned that he was quoting from Marianne Williamson. A couple of people asked me about the quote, so I post it here so everyone can get to it.

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us...And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Mystical, Magical, Spiritual

One of the major themes of my life and ministry is living from the heart. Some people don't like it because they have shut down the voice inside them that wants to live a daring, risky, life that is sustained and fulfilled only by trusting in God's goodness. They want a religious experience that is chock full of information gathering and downloading Christian tips and techniques from the latest spiritual guru.

I don't like that!

I don't like the way the church has reduced the cosmic, magical, mystical experience of knowing God and embraced dissecting glory like a worm pinned to a wax tablet sitting on a biology classroom desk. It gives me the same feeling I had when some silly science teacher explained how a rainbow glows or what makes the proper weather conditions for a lightning storm. Somewhere, someone has determined to explain away anything and everything that someone else might "wow" over. It seems to give them control if they can make what your heart loves something akin to a textbook. No one loves a textbook (except those who write them).

There is one thing that Christians everywhere need to remember, God never asked to be studied, God asks to be known.

Seminary Education

I'm in Abilene this week fulfilling one of the many requirements to receive my Masters Of Divinity degree. I'm taking Advanced Introduction to the New Testament. It's been an enlightening class. However, as the days continue on and we focus on fatigue in the synoptic gospels, redaction-criticism, kerygma and interpretive theory, I am reminded of these words from the great Danish religious thinker Soren Kierkegaard.

"It appears to me that on the whole the great mass of interpreters damage the understanding of the New Testament more than they benefit an understanding of it. It becomes necessary to do as one does at a play, where a profusion of spectators and spotlights seeks to prevent, as it were, our enjoyment of the play itself and instead treat us to little incidents--one has to overlook them, if possible, or manage to enter by a passage which is not yet blocked."

Elsewhere Kierkegaard throttles Christian interpreters by saying, "Christian scholarship is the human race's prodigious invention to defend itself against the New Testament, to ensure that one can continue to be a Christian without letting the New Testament come too close."

I think he's right, knowledge--and the on-going profession and interrogation of that knowledge--is often a hindrance to what Jesus asks us to do: "Come and see!" Kierkegaard and I aren't the only ones to think so either. After years of hearing dozens of professors lecture, reading countless essays and books, sitting in on hundreds of scholarly conversations, and knowing some of Christendoms great thinkers, we all agree on one thing when it comes to reading the Bible. The most simple interpretation is usually the right one!

Away to Abilene

This next week, May 31-June 4, I will be in Abilene for a class. I doubt I will be able to post anything, but I'm sure I'll have lots to say when I return.

While I'm gone, you can look back over your favorite post here and direct your friends and neighbors to the site.

Magical Morning

Don't you hate mornings? I do! I have never understood those people who jolt out of bed and bound around the house before 6:00 am each morning. Are they crazy? Do they not have good dreams? My wife works with a woman who wakes up every day around 4:00 am. She practices her piano--which I'm sure her husband loves,--eats breakfast, reads the daily paper and gets to the office before 6:00. Why? Surely there must be some mental dysfunction going on there. But, I guess some folks are just morning people.

I am not one of those people! I am a night person. In my view the world is backward. We should sleep in the day and be up at night. I understand why our inner clocks work the way they do, but I'm not a farmer or a rancher. I don't need the daylight to get things done. The earliest anyone needs to get up is 10:00 am. Anything that needs to be done before that can wait. Right?

Well, that's how I used to feel.

Now our daughter, Malia, wakes up every morning between 7:30 and 8:00. From the living room we can hear her begin to stir. Turning, stretching, yawning and sighing are signs that her new day is about to begin. My first instinct is to race in to get her, but to do that would mean missing the magic. When she first stirs, she's not quite fully awake. The patient man is rewarded if he can wait for those few minutes when she is fully awake but she hasn't realized she is alone. If you go in her room then, you will see the glory of the sun in her eyes. Standing there, I watch her roll over when she senses the presence of someone in the room, her eyes blink as she recognizes a familiar and loving face and then a smile only given to angels inches across her face. It is magic!

Right then, a overwhelming feeling of joy and love floods from the heavens into my heart. My only responds is to pick her up, kiss her and tell her how much she is loved. It's a feeling so far beyond words, that one feels silly even trying to describe it. No matter how difficult it was to put her to sleep the night before, or how much she fused the previous day, nor how many diapers there were to change, the love greatly outweighs the pains (if those things can even be called pains).

There is something mysterious and magical about the morning, something glorious. Each day is a new beginning, a fresh start to revive our lives. Malia has taught me that mornings are God's perfect painting of renewal and blessedness.

Standing over her this morning, these words came to mind:"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."

Inspiration

I was glad to see American Idol reject, William Hung's new music video. It's a cover of Ricky Martin's mega-dance hit, "She Bangs." I remember watching the audition show of American Idol this season. In particular, I remember seeing William. Let's all face it. He can't sing! But that's okay, he's a engineering student at Stanford University. I'm sure he'll be fine in the long run.

Right now, young William has new CD entiled, "Inspiration" and apparently it's selling. My hope is that Willie knows that the world does not think he's the second coming of Luther Vandross, but rather a new type of circus sideshow. If he does know--great. I hope he makes a killing singing at Six Flags Magic Mountain, and at AAA baseball games. If he doesn't know, someone close to him should tell him. Because not to would just be mean.

William dances a lot too. He can't dance either.

But the thing about William' singing and dancing that is great is that he looks like he's having so much fun. Wouldn't you love that? Just to cut loose, let go and have fun and forget, or learn to appreciate, that other people are watching. William is living his dream of singing in front of thousands, though no one thinks he can sing. He's going on tour. He's doing interviews. He's making videos.

Only singers do that! Oh, yeah, and William Hung. William wasn't designed for singing, but he certainly has the desire, and he's living the dream--if only for his 15 Minutes.

Do you ever wondered what life would look like, if just for 15 minutes, you could chase your dreams? If you could sing in front of the crowd or make up your own dance. Wouldn't that be great? Wouldn't you be free?

I wonder what dreams the rest of us would pursue if we could follow William's "Inspiration."

Never Safe!

"Who is Aslan?" asked Susan.
"Aslan?" said Mr. Beaver, "Why don't you know? He's the King...It is he, not you, that will save Mr. Tumnus...."
"Is he a man!" said Mr. Beaver sternly.
"Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. Don't you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion--the lion, the great Lion."
"Ooh!" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he--quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion."
"That you will, dearie, and make no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver, "if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly."
"Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy.
"Safe?" said Mrs. Beaver. "Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tell you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."
"I'm longing to see him," said Peter, "even if I do feel frightened when it comes to the point."

EPIC

I'm beginning the process of redecorating my office. It's nothing major. I just want the space to reflect more of my personality and my heart. I have always loved stories. Especially the great stories, the epic stories. In each one I find something profound about the human spirit and more importantly I discover God more deeply.

When I speak, here at my home church and around the country, I use movies a lot--they are our best vehicles for stories. Some people like it and some people don't. Oftentimes the movies I use are rated "R" which suggest to some people that they should not be used in a Christian setting. I always suspect that the people who object were some of the first people in line when some of these movies came out. Can you imagine how little money a movie would make if no Christians saw it? Plus, they always seem to know exactly what happens in the movies I reference.

So I am redecorating my office with posters of the epic movies I love. Not only do I love them, but each of them tells, or rather re-tells, a part of God's story with humanity.

Here are the first five posters to go up and how I see them re-telling God's awesome adventure with His people.

1. Braveheart. One man dies so that others may go free. Sound familiar? It's also a great story about recovering your heart and fighting for freedom. Check out this line from the poster: "Every man dies, but not every man really lives
2. Gladiator. Simply put: A general becomes a slave who becomes a gladiator, and defies a kingdom. Have you ever heard of anyone else that descended in order to defy evil and set people free? In the background the poster reads: "A Hero Will Rise."
3. Saving Private Ryan. This one is easy. Who leaves the ninety-nine to rescue the one? Under the title on the poster it reads: "The Mission is a Man."
4. The Last Samurai. Someone once said, "I come not to bring peace, but a sword." Samurai fought for their people (sheep) to their own detriment, prepared to die to protect them.
5. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the Kings. This movie is chock full of spiritual significance, but you don't have to be Plato to understand these five words: "The Return of the King!"

These stories always remind me that God is telling a story and that I have a place in it. A place to be valiant, fearless and dangerous--for good!

Just last Sunday I returned from Buena Vista, CO and the Wild at Heart Boot Camp with John Eldredge. It was an awesome weekend! With the still frosted mountains of the Colorado Rockies as the backdrop, almost anything would be incredible.

Once again, God revealed Himself to me through his glorious creation. Rows of pine trees strecthed endlessly over the terrain, snow-capped mountains laid siege to us at Frontier Ranch--which has to be the nicest camp site I have ever seen, and cloudless blue skies smiled down on our gathering. If you have never been to this part of the country, you should get them there as soon as you can! I have always said that Colorado was my heart's true home. Oh, how true that is!

Each visit to Colorado reminds me that my life is only partially what it was meant for. Rochelle and I honeymooned in Colorado, all my favorite writers live in Colorado, and a dormant part of my heart comes alive when my feet touch the cool earth of Colorado soil. God speaks to me there!

How I would love to simple move to Colorado, minister and write. I might even sacrifice golf to do that. No earthly pleasure compares to sensing the presence of God.

What were the words I heard God speak? Well, it was something like the words of Beauchene, "You are never a great man when you have more mind than heart."

A Few Days

I'm headed to Buena Vista, Colorado for the next few days. I going to John Eldredge's Wild at Heart Boot Camp. I'm not sure what to expect, but I'm sure it will be great.

I will write again after I return. God Bless!

Just a quick thought today from Leonard Sweet.

"Most institutions (especially churches) are more focused on inculcating memories of the past than on designing visions of the future."

It's an election year, so I thought it might be appropriate to quote a politician. Don't worry, I won't be attempting to decipher was is is or sharing my thoughts on who and who is not a crook. Rather, I decided that a quote that has something to say to people's spirit might be more effective. I want to continue to press us to do great things and never fear failure. Here are some words from Teddy Roosevelt.

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly...who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never known neither victory nor defeat."

Afraid to Try

One of the things that has always been true of American churches is that they (we) fear risk. We talk a lot about trust and faithfulness but when the rubber meets the road, what we have always done becomes what we will always do. I suppose that's fair enough. It's difficult for anyone, especially an organization, to dare to become something other than it has always been.

But we must!!

The church stands at an exciting crossroads, one that can lead us into bigger, better, brighter things. We are being beckoned to the light, if only we are willing to go. Our American culture is daring us to speak about the real Spirit in a world full of saline spiritualities. But to do that, we must be willing to change. Oh, no, not change the gospel. We are not and should not be willing to change the core beliefs that make us disciples, but rather we must change the way we do things. Chiefly, we must not be afraid to fail. When we are afraid to fail then by default we are afraid to try.

Leonard Sweet writes, "Postmodern culture has moved from 'trial and error' to 'trial and success.' Can the culture of the church change from safety-first, risk-free to risky, frisky innovation and unplanned experimentation?" At the core he is asking, "Can the church see itself in a different light than it always has?" It's a great question, one that most churches will say "yes" to in word, but "no" to in deed.

Churches are far more likely to walk the road most traveled, hoping that the crowded path will give us comfort and company enough for our journey so we don't realize that we really aren't going anywhere. After all, there is safety in numbers.

But those numbers are declining. The world sees the status quo, faithlessness of the church and simply chooses to not chose Christianity at all. Why should they?

Think on these words from D.H. Lawrence's novel Women in Love.

"God can do without man. God could do without the ichthyosauri and the mastodon. These monsters failed creatively to develop, so God, the creative mystery, dispensed with them. In the same way the mystery could dispense with man (or the church), should he too fail creatively to change and develop."

Happy Ending!

A church member asked me a few weeks ago whether or not I knew any happy stories. I guess the sermon illustrations in the weeks running up to that had a lot to do with pain, suffering, or death. I wasn't quite sure what to say to the man. I do know "happy" stories, quite a few as a matter of fact, but oftentimes they don't make it into the text of my sermons or writings.

I've spent the last few weeks wondering why that is. Why is it that I've spent 2004 focusing on messy spiritual lives and being disappointed with God? Is that where I live? Well, sometimes but not all the times. Do I enjoy the dark side? Not really. I typically recoil from unpleasantness.

Maybe it's because 2004 has been the most difficult personal and professional time in my life. My father-in-law died, I've had increased responsibilities at work, my wife's been in deep mourning, we're stumbling through being first time parents, Texas has no income tax and takes it out of homeowners, and disappointment decided to make my life it's campground--but I don't think that's why I talk and write about the things I talk and write about.

Rather, I think it is because I have seen and lived such false Christianity in my life. It is a religious life where everything with everybody is always fine and people always feel good. Church folks are great at pretending, so to be successful, I learned to pretend along with them.

The problem is that that is the worst possible way to maintain a relationship. It's like a first date. Both people wear their best clothes, tell their best stories, and are always on their best behavior. That's great for impressing someone, but terrible for knowing someone. Many of us spend our entire lives doing impressions of ourselves, hoping that people will like or love us. And soon after we have impressed all the people we want to impress and gained their attention and love, our hearts weep, because the person they have come to love isn't really us.

That's why I tell "unhappy" stories. We all need to know that we can be who we are, experience what happens to us and continue in faith without having to be on guard that our personas are damaged. I tell real stories about real people, so that people can have the courage to be real.

Truthfully, I want Christian people to discover their anger and disappointment with God. I want all of us to voice our questions and shed our tears to and about a God that we don't understand. I think that is when He engages us.

A question cannot be answered if it is never asked. A tear cannot be dried if it is never shed. A relationship cannot grow if we never talk about what we don't like about it. God cannot encounter our hearts if we are offering holographic humanity. We cannot know Him if we are hiding behind being okay with Him. The God of the universe is pursuing us, not the makeshift men and women we portray to the world. He cannot have us if we are pretending.

It is only when we are real that the happy ending comes.

I often worry that Christianity has become too main stream, too much apart of the social fabric of America that it losses it's intensity. Soren Kierkegaard captures my concern this way, "In a country where everyone is a Christian, no one's a Christian."

Reading through the Biblical story, it's easy to see that from the beginning God's people were misaligned with the dominant culture and world around them. In short, followers of God have always been weird! How else should we expect to be? It s our misalignment and maladjustment that gives us a word of hope and righteousness to speak to our world. It is our weirdness that shines the light of God's love in a world covered with darkness.

I'm reminded of these words from Martin Luther King, Jr: we must be..."As maladjusted as Jesus of Nazareth who dreamed a dream of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. God grant that we will be so maladjusted that we will be able to go out and change our world and our civilization. And then we will be able to move from the bleak desolate midnight of man's inhumanity to man to the bright glittering daybreak of freedom and justice."

I've been thinking a lot lately about being disappointed with God. Whenever I am faced with an issue--either personal or pastoral--I often come back to the writer who is the source of so much contemporary writing, C.S. Lewis. Cherish these words from 'The Screwtape Letters.'

"Work hard, then, on the disappointment or anti-climax which is certainly coming to the patient during the first few weeks as a churchman. The Enemy allows this disappointment to occur on the threshold of every human endeavor. It occurs when the boy who has been enchanted in the nursery by Stories from the Odyssey buckles down to really learning Greek. It occurs when lovers have got married and begin the real task of learning to live together. In every department of life it marks the transition from dreaming aspiration to laborious doing. The Enemy takes this risk because He has a curious fantasy of making all these disgusting little human vermin into what He calls His "free" lovers and servants--"sons" is the word He uses, with His inveterate love of degrading the whole spiritual world by unnatural liaisons with the two-legged animals. Desiring their freedom, He therefore refuses to carry them, by their mere affections and habits, to any of the goals which He sets before them: He leaves them to "do it on their own." And there lies our opportunity. But also, remember, there lies our danger. If only they get through this initial dryness successfully, they become much less dependent on emotion and therefore much less harder to tempt."

It occurs to me that the "initial dryness" doesn't go away after we've been disciples for a while, but re-occurs at every intersection in which we attempt to step out with Jesus into something new.

We are never safe because Jesus makes all things new.

God in the Shadows

There is probably no more lonely a feeling than when we are disappointed with God. We think and expect something to be one way, and it turns out to be another. That kind of disappointment has visited and revisited our home a lot over the last few months. Death, reversals, rejection; they all have a way of questioning what we think life is and, more importantly, who we think God is.

Is God concerned about us--personally, intimately? Is God acting and active on our behalf? Or are we created vessels seeking to strain out the best of the numbered breaths we have been given? What is God up to, anyway? And why doesn't He allow His faithful to peek behind the curtain to bear witness to all His plans?

Honestly, there are times when I fear that we are on our own, that life is random and God has gone on vacation. There are times that seem as though the vast emptiness I feel in the pit of my stomach--when disappointment comes--must be indicative of the void space of a creatorless creation. What explanation can be given about a God that asks us to speak to Him in prayer, but seems slow to respond? How can we explain a God that commands faithfulness and trust, but so frequently works in arenas we cannot see?

A God that works in the shadows, should not expect to be trusted, should He? The prostitute, the mugger, the cat-burglar and rapist all hide in the shadows for good reason; the evil they perpetrate is benefited by the darkness. Why would a good God not illuminate His handiwork in order to guide those who would willingly follow? If there is a plan for our lives, wouldn't it work better if we could help work the plan?

All I can figure is that the plan must not need our help, that God doesn't need an assist. Perhaps trust and faithfulness are the only designs we can bring to the plan. Or better yet, the plan exists to produce in us faithfulness and trust and the particulars are incidental. It must be that God's plan is only to bring us to faithfulness and trust and the distinctives of our lives are like roads in ancient Rome; bumpy, dangerous and crooked, but all leading to center of the great kingdom?

I've been preaching recently about the spiritual life. What is it? How do you know when you're spiritual? Oftentimes the spiritual life is different than what we think it is. Check out these words from Watchman Nee.

"Christians deem their spiritual lives to be at high tide when they feel the presence of God, and at low tide when they feel low or dry. Yet these are only feelings and as such do not represent the reality of spiritual life. Those who have moved on to maturity clearly understand this and thus do not place much trust in these transient feelings."

The Waiting Game

I should have known it was going to be a late night when my 4-month-old daughter fell asleep during her last bottle of the day at 9:30 pm. That never happens. She gulps until the bottle is on the verge of implosion from the sheer pressure of suction. Enfamil formula must be Maxwell House coffee for infants--good to the last drop.

So, our wonderful daughter arose at 3:00 am--a little fussy, but with a smile. She doesn't wake up to eat anymore in the middle of the night, so I tried everything to get her back to sleep, but finally gave up and gave her her bottle about 20 minutes ago. Usually after an hour and a half I'm a little but frustrated with this stage of early childhood development, but tonight's a little different. My sleep wasn't interrupted by the cries from down the hall. I wasn't asleep anyway.

It started at 2 am when I woke up and realized that I had left a window open. Thoughts of JonBenet Ramsey rushing through my mind, I quickly went and closed it. Most of the time I would quickly go back to sleep, but not tonight (really this morning). My mind is busy tonight.

You see, right now, in our lives we are waiting. Waiting for a decision. Waiting to make decisions based on that decision. Financial decisions, career decisions, big decisions. What we're waiting for is not a decision we can make, only one we have to live with, but that's not the problem. The problem is waiting. I don't know if there's anything in the world worse than waiting.

Rochelle is waiting to see her father again. I'm waiting to see if the South Beach Diet, a personal trainer and 24-Hour Fitness will make a difference. We have friends who are waiting on children. We have friends who are waiting on love. Right now I'm waiting to see if my daughter is really going to sleep the rest of the night or will I again have to arise from my state of non-sleep where I will be staring at the ceiling...waiting.

But ultimately, being a Christian means a lot of waiting. Our bodies will one day be healed, but we have to wait. Our relationships will one day be restored, we're waiting on that one too. Soon our hearts will be at peace, but not soon enough--we'll spend some time waiting on that. The hearts of the children will turn to the hearts of the parents, we will race to the arms of Jesus and we'll know as we are known--but only after we wait.

I'm not sure if I have any deep spiritual meaning to hang on all this waiting, but I know that I am waiting to be with Jesus. And His sacrifice means that He's waiting to be with me too.

Maranatha--"Come Oh, Lord."

The American Dream?

In an American Christian culture that values wealth, power, beauty and success as much as it does, I'm always challenged and inspired by people who remind me of what LIFE is really about.

Cherish these words from Philip Yancey:

"In a world ruled by law, grace stands as a sign of contradiction. We want fairness; the gospel gives us an innocent man nailed to a cross who cries out, "Father, forgive them." We want respectability; the gospel elevates tax collectors, prodigals, and Samaritians. We want success; the gospel reverses the terms, moving the poor and downtrodden to the head of the line and the wealthy and famous to the rear."

A Line at the Changing Room Door

Our church meets in small groups most Sunday nights. My wife, Rochelle, and I belong to one that meets just up the street from our house. Our group started about 3 years ago and its present look is drastically different from what it was 1,095 days ago.

The biggest difference is obvious: there's a line to use the changing room! No, not the kind of changing room you might find in a department store: that's where customers change. It's not even the kind of scum-stained changing room you may remember from high school: that's a locker room. You might be thinking of the bristling backstage area you might find at a concert or play: that's a dressing room. No this room is not for customers or athletes or thespians, it's for children.

In three years our group has grown from 9 people to 17 people. 17 PEOPLE! Our group used to have discussions, now it has diapers. We used to talk about our beliefs, now we talk about bottles. We were a group in search of sanctification, now we are a group in search of sleep.

Our small group has changed dramatically the past few years. We've had people join our church family and join our group. We've also had other kinds of changes. Financial reversals, job changes, career changes, stay-at-home-moms, family trouble; they've all visited our group.

We've also been visited by some angels-in-waiting named Nicole, Kristen, Julia, Parker, Naomi, Alyssa, Cole and my favorite, Malia Rose. Each one of them has been a continental shift when it comes to change. The other night as I stood in line waiting for the changing table, I thought about the subtle, yet powerful, image it is--though it may not be the prettiest (or most nicely scented).

I was reminded that we all need to be changed--babies, toddlers, adults, everybody. We all need to be freshened up and made clean. And though a dirty diaper can oftentimes leave me desirous of a life without messes, no life like that exist. You see, sin has really made us dirty, and we need to be cleaned. I'm thankful for a God who doesn't mind changing me.

Faithful Father

I have a lot of books sitting on my office floor. There are more books there than I can probably read in the next few years. The titles and topics cover everything you could imagine from the Dead Sea Scrolls to churches that abuse. There are some impressive author's names nestled against the stained green carpet of my office. Names like Luke Timothy Johnson and Dietrich Bonhoffer. The books are all marked up inside with thoughtful, insightful ponderings and notes, sometimes with depths greater than the author's writings. You see, I just inherited the entire library of my father-in-law, Dempsey Stripling.

He died of a heart attack on January 27. It was sudden! It was shocking! It is still surreal!

If the world were to sum up his life they would probably say he didn't mean much, just another preacher, just another person. He never amassed a great fortune. He never enjoyed great fame. He never wrote a book, or hit the speaking circuit. But what he did do was amazing. He actually changed people's lives! Many people set out to do that, but few actually do!

In the days after his passing, the family heard from people all across the country. In fact, we heard from people all across the world. They would tell Rochelle, "your dad changed my life." People would say, "I've never known anyone who had so much integrity." We heard things like, "he always made me feel special" and "he was the best man I'd ever known." When I come to think about it, he was the best man I've ever known too.

The funeral services were held in the next town away, in a church with a large sanctuary. We knew that the small Salado, TX funeral home could not hold all the people. It turns out, no place could hold the love Dempsey had for people. And he let people know it.

I must confess that I am often concerned about all the wrong things: myself, my career, my ministry. But Dempsey's life was always about the right things: faith, family and fidelity. I wish you could have known him. You would have been better for it.

As Gayle Sayers once said of Brian Piccolo, I say to you: I love Dempsey Stripling, and I'd like all of you to love him.

If you want a full description of my father-in-law, it is found in Matthew 5. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God."

Why I'm Here

Walking briskly through our church building, one of our members asked me a question that I used to be asked a lot. "Were you comfortable when you first came here?" You have to understand that I'm a young black man ministering to a mostly upper-middle class white church.

Before I moved here, I ministered in a mostly Hispanic city and was asked the same question. The answer to that question is simple. My father constantly ingrained into my brother and me the idea that black people should be represented everywhere.

Once we were watching the movie, The Lords of Discipline. The movie tells the story of an all white military school that enrolls it's first African-American student. Needless to say, the students did not welcome him with open arms. I asked my dad, "why doesn't he just leave, why would anyone stick around to be treated that way?" My dad told me, "because if he stays and makes it, he can prove that he's not only as good as the other students, but that he's better and he makes it easier for the next guy."

Hide this story away in your heart.
Once a king built a great highway and invited his people to see who could travel the highway the best. On the first day, people who traveled the new road complained to the king that a large pile of rocks and debris had been left and the mess hindered their travel. One lone traveler, tired and dirty, handed the king a bag of gold, explaining that he had stopped to clear a pile of rocks that blocked the road and found the gold. The king gave the money to the man, saying, "You've earned this gold. He who travels the road the best is he who makes the road smoother for those who will follow."

I think that's one of the great aspects of my life. I get to break down barriers, plow through pre-conceived notions, and make the road smoother for those who will follow.

Out or Safe At Home?

Pete Rose. Cheater? Maybe. Gambler? For sure! Charlie-hustler is back in the news. The entire sports nation is all ramped up about Pete's confession that he bet on baseball. Is this news? Did we not all know that he bet on baseball? If he were innocent he would have fought Fay Vincent and the Dowd report 15 years ago. He didn't. He knew he was guilty then. We all know he's guilty now.

Did I mention that he owes Dowd an apology for 15 years of slanderous allegations of falsifying records? He also owes all of us who wasted an entire evening watching the Pete Rose mock trial starring Johnny Cochran on ESPN. That's an hour and a half I'll never get back.

Did I mention he owes reporter Jim Grey an apology for Pete's ill-treatment of Grey at a World Series game (or All-Star game, I can't remember) a few years ago when Pete was honored with some of the greats of the game? Sports fans went on ad nauseum about how "inappropriate" it was for Grey to ask Charlie-highstakes to admit his wrongdoings.

Well Pete's come clean now! Oddly, just before today's Baseball Hall of Fame Inductee announcements. Pete is hustling again! Only this time, he's stealing the hall-of-fame spotlight from worthy honorees.

By the way, why has Dale Murphy not been inducted into the Hall of Fame. He played the game good and clean and with honor. He was everything Major League Baseball wants in a player--a two-time National League MVP! But still, no Hall of Fame.

I don't think Pete Rose should EVER get to be in the Hall of Fame. And I think Dale Murphy should be inducted with much haste. Nevertheless, I don't get to make that decision. In truth, I'm not qualified to make that decision. I only have my opinion (which, by the way, is extremely well informed).

Heaven is like that too. Luckily for all of us, I don't get to make decisions on who's in and who's out. When confronted with issues like Pete Rose, I'm reminded of how narrow and unforgiving I can be. I'm sure that like Pete Rose I've called into question the integrity of the endeavor I consider most sacred--the salvation of my God.

It's a good thing that Jesus died and lives for all us Charlie-hustlers. It's the only way we will ever get in.

**P.S. Dale Murphy should be in the Hall.

Recaptured Hearts

If you're not having the greatest day, maybe these words from John Eldredge and Brent Curtis will help.

"God created us for intimacy with him. When we turned our back on him he promised to come for us. He sent personal messengers; he used beauty and affliction to recapture our hearts. After all else failed, he conceived the most daring of plans. Under the cover of night he stole into the enemy's camp incognito, the Ancient of Days disguised as a newborn. The Incarnation, as Phil Yancey reminds us, was a daring raid into enemy territory. The whole world lay under the power of the evil one and we were held in the dungeons of darkness. God risked it all to rescue us. Why? What is it that he sees in us that causes him to act the jealous lover, to lay siege both on the kingdom of darkness and on or own idolatries as if on Troy--not to annihilate, but to win us once again for himself?...What he is after is us!"