The Snare Is Broken

2011-08-27T07:38:00.000-07:00

2011-02-01T06:42:00.000-08:00

Don't Forget to change your bookmarks and hop on over to the NEW BLOG, "Hmm&Hum" where you'll find all the new 'Broken Snare' posts and all kinds of other goodies like kid quotes, pictures and new songs! Updated all the stinkin' time! Come check it out right here!!

2011-01-03T07:43:00.001-08:00

Don't Forget To Change Your Bookmarks!!

In just a bit, I'm going to be taking down this blog and posting all my meditations from the Scriptures and life over on a tumblr blog which you can find by clicking here: Hmm&Hum.

So, if you enjoy reading these posts, (and thanks by the way, if you do) you'll want to head on over to the new blog. Thanks!!

2010-12-31T03:57:00.000-08:00

Planted

How long does your family leave the Christmas tree up? A week, or two maybe? I guess it depends on whether or not you have a real tree. I mean, technically, if you have one of the fake ones, you could let that bad boy stand there in your living room all year long, proud and tall; but if you have a real tree, you’ve got to get it on out of there... Well, I should say you need to get it on out of there. I’ll never forget the time in high school when I went over to my friend Apurva’s house and walked into the living room only to find a Christmas tree that was completely dead and brown from the top to the bottom. By the way, it was the middle of June! When I walked in, Apurva said his dad was wondering if we wouldn’t mind taking the tree down... Hello!

To be honest, I was pretty scared to go near the tree. It was drooping there by an enormous window like a rickety old man, fragile and weathered. I was so afraid that at any moment a beam of sunlight refracted through the window would cause the sad, dead stick of a thing to suddenly burst into flames, like a last gasp of life. I looked at Apurva and said, “Why in the world is this thing still up?! Are you crazy?” He said his dad had pestered him for ages to take it down, but he just never got around to it. I told him he should be thankful that the tree never got around to burning his house down! In a heightened sense of my own mortality, I helped my friend slowly and gingerly remove the ornaments from this unpredictable fire hazard and then we picked it up and started to make our way out of the house. I was sweating... trying my hardest to avoid all possible friction, not letting even one of the dry, lifeless needles rub against anything. There was a moment there when we were almost out of the front door when I was afraid that all that fresh oxygen outside plus the tight squeeze of the door jamb would actually cause the thing to combust; but no, we made it. We went across the street and tossed the tired tannenbaum into the woods. I stood there for a bit, just knowing that at any moment that thing would just explode, but nothing.

As I write this, it’s the very last day of 2010, and to be honest, I’m a bit tired. When I woke up today, I was really feeling the last day of the year. In some ways, I felt like Apurva’s old Christmas tree: dry and used up; but then I rubbed my eyes, opened up the Scriptures, said good morning to the Lord who never sleeps and asked Him to meet with me. As I read, something strange and sweet started happening: I began to feel revived. I started to feel fresh, green and strong. If you will, I began to stretch my branches and take in the warm sunlight (even though the sun hasn’t yet risen on this cold, winter day).

Check out these verses from a few different Psalms: “Blessed is the one whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither - whatever they do prospers... The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green... I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God’s unfailing love for ever and ever.”

As an old year ends today and a new year begins tomorrow, I don’t want to be dry, sad and brown. I want to be planted. I want to be rooted, strong, green and growing in the love of God.

2010-12-24T02:58:00.001-08:00

Invitation

This week, our family took a little mini-vacation for Christmas with Christy's sister and her family. Before heading off to bed on Monday, my brother-in-law Patrick and I set alarms to wake ourselves up in the middle of the night. At approximately 2:35, I turned off said alarm and hauled my sleepy self out of bed, slipping on some shoes and grabbing my warmest coat off of the back of the couch. Patrick was already downstairs and ready to go. Yes, we were tired, and sure, we were probably going to pay for this in the morning, but we were convinced it would be worth it. You see, this past Tuesday morning, at around 2:45 there was a total lunar eclipse and we were going to see it.

It's not every day that the earth lines up between the sun and the moon so perfectly that the earth blocks the sun's rays completely. NASA says that when this happens and the earth casts a shadow over the moon, the moon appears to change color from gray to orange and even deep red because of indirect sunlight filtered through earth's atmosphere that casts a glow on the moon. Pretty cool, huh? But this wasn't the only thing cool about that night. It just so happened that Tuesday was also the winter solstice, which is the night where the earth's axial tilt is farthest away from the sun, meaning the moon appears highest in the sky. This was actually the first total lunar eclipse to fall on the winter solstice since the year 1638! This hasn't happened in 372 years, which meant that no one in living memory had ever seen it!

So there we were, freezing our tails off in the middle of the night, watching our breath come out of our faces and looking... looking. We stared up into the sky, searching for the event stargazers had been collectively waiting for almost four hundred years and... Nothing. We couldn't see anything at all. It was so cloudy, nothing in the night sky was visible. We woke up, got dressed and braved the cold for... Nothing.

When Almighty God came down to earth as a baby boy on that first Christmas, almost nobody came. Almost nobody cared. In fact, if God had not rocked the worlds of some local shepherds with an impromptu celestial military choir, not even they would have come. The fact that the birth of Jesus was only attended by some blue collar outcasts is cool and it even fits the story, but I'm not so sure it's the way it should have been. You see, when the Father sent the Son into our world, He invited everyone to the party. An unprecedented astronomical event burst into the normalcy of the night sky, proclaiming to anyone who cared to look that a King was born in Israel. It was like a heavenly pop-up ad, a star no one could possibly miss! God was telling the whole world that Jesus was born! And that's not all! Hundreds of years before that star blazed in the night sky, God sent an invitation to his people in their Scriptures. It was like a holy save-the-date card that everyone was supposed to keep pinned up on the calendar. Micah says this: "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times. He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be their peace."

God invited the world, and except for a few outcasts and foreigners, no one came. Hundreds of years of waiting for... Nothing. In my opinion, rejection has got to be one of the most difficult emotions we ever have to deal with. Well, when God finally fulfilled a three thousand year old promise, answering the cries and songs of countless generations, one of the first things He felt was the dull throb of rejection. And yet, hundreds of miles away, someone was waiting, watching and wondering. Way out in a foreign country there were wise men whose hearts were not so clouded up that they missed the invitation. They came and worshipped. And just like He did then, God is calling me, wanting me, inviting me to come and know Him. The invitation is here today, in front my face and I don't want to miss it.

2010-12-21T11:43:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas!

This is a collection of acoustic demos of Christmas tunes, but they aren't the traditional Christmas songs you're used to hearing on radio stations and in department stores at this time of year... No, these are brand new Christmas songs that developed out of the quiet reflection of my own heart as I considered the Old Story once again. God loved the world enough to come down here Himself and save it by emptying Himself, becoming one of us and then giving Himself to death in our place. May we never tire of singing the Old Story in new songs.

Cheers,

lee

2010-12-15T13:04:00.000-08:00

Still Waiting

A shocking bit of news in the world of sports went largely unnoticed this afternoon. ESPN didn't run the story and you probably won't find an in-depth report on the pages of Sports Illustrated, but it's sort of a big deal. You see, today I officially retired from fantasy football. I know, I know, only a few short weeks ago on this blog I went on and on about how much I loved this hallowed, so-called sport, this make-believe clash of nerdy couch potatoes; but alas, I'm calling it quits. I'm hanging up my fake headset and my pretend whistle. I'm stepping off the phony sidelines and out of the artificial stadium for the last time. Some of my colleagues have seen this decision coming for weeks now. I've been going through a slump of discouraging losses that have turned a fun little game into a weekly, Internet homework assignment I just can't be bothered to turn in. In short, I'm over it. I wish I could say that it has nothing to do with the fact that I should have been really good this year and wasn't, but hey, let's face it, that's pretty much what it boils down to.

And to be even more childish, I blame it all on one guy... Chris Johnson. Now, I love the Tennessee Titans and I love Chris Johnson as a person; and if we ever met I'd want to be friends, (especially because he could crush me) but in the realm of fake sports, he has sadly let me down. I drafted last year's most dominant pro football player because he promised to have another 2,500 yard season. Coupled with Tom Brady, I should have been competitive every week with only two of my players, but CJ has been a total bust. The player that broke records and dropped jaws in 2009 assured the world he would have an even more brilliant and memorable season in 2010, but those promises haven't been fulfilled. I'm still waiting on him to have even one really great week. This disappointment of unfulfilled promises has basically become too much to handle in what my wife calls my "fantasy world." So, thanks to Chris Johnson, I'm walking away with only one imaginary Super Bowl ring.

Unfulfilled promises can be one of life's most devastating realities. Someone promises us something, we believe them and so we start to get our hopes up. When the promised something doesn't come through, we find that the expectation of that promise has become in our minds a guarantee we have banked upon, planned on and feel entitled to. This let down is worse than if we had never wanted whatever it was in the first place. The other day I was reading Luke 1 and thinking about Mary who received promises from Almighty God at the hands of Gabriel, one of the Lord's blazing, eternal messengers. When I read those familiar words again, something struck me... Aside from mentioning the pregnancy and birth, Gabriel didn't really go into any detail about all of the vast struggles and problems this heavenly assignment was going to bring Mary's way. In fact, the stuff Gabriel talked about was all sounding pretty awesome!

"The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end. ”

Look at that! Her baby would be called great and become a King and sit enthroned forever and ever! And then this thought struck me with a dull thud: Mary is still waiting on those promises to be fulfilled. 2,000 years later, Mary, who endured so much toil and heartbreak is still waiting on the joyful fulfillment of the promises God made to her when she was but a teenager! Wow. And so it is for those who walk with God. This life winds up being harder than we thought it would be for longer than we ever dreamed it could be. But that's not the end of this story, because God is faithful. He will fulfill every word Gabriel spoke to little Mary. It may not be for another 2,000 years or even more, but it will happen, and when it does, not only Mary's, but all our dreams will come true forever and ever.

P.S. I'm going to be moving this blog to a new location soon, so if you like reading these weekly posts, click here and then set the new page as your bookmark. Thanks for reading... I hope it's an encouragement to you!

2010-12-08T13:07:00.000-08:00

A couple pics from our pumpkin patch trip with the cousins!

Of Priests And Plumbers

When does a homeowner really start to feel like a homeowner? I think there is a point at which one crosses that divide and says, "Man, this place is really mine!" but what exactly is that point? Is it signing all the papers on closing day? Well, sort of, but no, not really. Is it moving all of your stuff in? No, not so much for me. That's mainly annoying. Is it painting the walls your own custom color and hanging up your family portraits? Um, maybe, but not really what I'm going for here. Is it going outside on a perfect, bright summer day and mowing the grass? Is it answering the door with a bowl of candy for adorable and neighborly trick-or-treaters? Is it hanging up the wreath on the front door and stringing up lights for Christmas? No, no and again, no. Sadly, though these are all great things, nothing makes the sobering fact of home-ownership sink in quite like replacing the wax ring under your toilet for the very first time.

We have been experiencing some plumbing problems of late. Turns out that the folks who remodeled our house cut a few corners when it came time to install the toilets, so that the flange underneath the throne isn't really attached to anything and the tile is uneven, which makes the can sort of rock from side to side. Long story short, the wax seal underneath the john becomes compromised and the whole house fills up with the unique, unmistakable and disparaging smell of sewage and methane gas... And look, when you have a problem with your toilets, you have a problem. That is when you know you're a homeowner. I mean, yesterday, the kids were insane. There was so much griping, complaining and fussing that I almost lost my mind. At the end of the day, Christy just said, "I think everyone in the house has just been completely affected by the overwhelming smell of poo." Amen, sister!

A friend told me to simply change the wax ring out and make a new seal. He said it costs $2.00, takes ten minutes and is a piece of cake, so I took Jack down to Home Depot so that he could see how a real man takes care of his family and fixes things. I came home with the wax ring and got to work. 45 minutes later my back was sore, my hands were sticky, I was frustrated and confused and our house still smelled like a T-Rex with the stomach flu. I went to bed emotionally drained and spent a restless night tossing and turning, unable to stop thinking about my failure as a man and the pungent smell of doo. I needed help! I needed someone with skills who could do the things I couldn't! I needed someone with wax ring experience and an iron nasal constitution to swoop into my house and help me! I needed the homeowners best friend! I needed... a reasonable plumber.

I called him this morning. He came in and did the things I don't know how to do. He installed new wax rings, meticulously fitted some plastic shims to stop the rocking pot and did it all without uttering even one profanity. Wow.

In the Old Testament, there was a whole class of folks whose lives were devoted to doing things for people they couldn't do for themselves. They were the priests. They interfaced with Almighty God on behalf of the normal folks. They sang to Him, sacrificed to Him and prayed to Him. One very special priest, called, "the high priest" got to go right into the presence of God on one day of the year. Those guys are gone, but now Jesus has become our High Priest. Hebrews 7 says, "Such a high priest meets our need–one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself." Isn't that awesome? Jesus is the one who has done for us what we could have never done ourselves. When we are frustrated, confused and covered in the stench of our own haphazardly patched-up lives, we have a high priest who gives us peace with God, adoption by God and friendship with God: Jesus, the friend of sinners and our merciful High Priest.

2010-12-03T02:00:00.000-08:00

A Memorial For A Princess

Yesterday I got a new audiobook by Walter Wangerin called, "The Book Of God" which is a novelization of the Bible. So far, it is both beautiful and terribly sad. Even though I know the stories already, I couldn't believe the way Sarah and Abraham treated Hagar. My heart went out to Ishmael as he and his poor mother were sent away from the only home, family and safety they knew. Then came the story of Rebekah , which was a sweet breath of fresh air before the disorienting heartbreak that was the tale of Jacob, Rachel and Leah.

Jacob was just like I remember him; brilliant, headstrong and about three steps ahead of everyone else. After having tricked his brother out of his inheritance twice, and lying to his father, Jacob left home, running for his life to his mother's home country. When he arrived, he fell in love with Rachel on first sight. But you remember the story; the trickster got tricked! Rachel's dad gave Jacob the older sister Leah instead of Rachel. Nobody wanted Leah, but there she was. Before you know it, Jacob found himself hitched to two sisters who spent the next ten years hating each other and using themselves and their servants to have a baby-off with Jacob in the middle of the whole thing!

What really got me in all of this mess was Leah. Poor Leah. She didn't ask for this life. She didn't mean to be always in the way. She was constantly rejected; not pretty enough, not fun enough, not Rachel enough. As I listened to Leah's story unfold, my heart broke with hers. No one loved her, no one saw her, no one wanted her. Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt like Leah? Have you ever felt unseen, unnoticed and unwanted? I had to think that at least part of my sadness over Leah's story was the mirror it forced me to look into, and how lonely it feels to be Leah. Probably everyone feels that way sometimes.

When Leah got pregnant, (something Rachel couldn't do) she named her first son, "See, a son!" just hoping that Jacob would finally love her, or at least look her way. It didn't work. She did so much talking about how unwanted she was that when she had another baby, she figured even God had heard her miseries and so she named this one, "He heard." When she had yet another son she thought, "Okay, surely this time my husband will be attached to me because I've given him three boys!" so she named him, "Attached." but, no dice. She still wasn’t Rachel enough for Jacob. Finally she got pregnant again and I guess Leah just decided that even if her husband never loved her, at least God did. God heard her, He saw how unloved and unwanted she was and maybe for the first time, that was enough for Leah. This fourth baby she named, “Praise God.”

Listening to this story unfold, I was so sad for Leah until I remembered something. I remembered that Leah’s not sad anymore. In fact, Leah hasn’t been sad in over 4,000 years! Not only that, that fourth baby of hers, the one she named, “Praise God” became the great, great, great, great... (skip a few) great, great grandfather of our Lord Jesus, the Son of God, the Prince of Peace! The whole history of the world changed by the descendant of Leah! The rescue of the human race came through Leah’s family! The girl no one wanted turned out to be the very girl God Almighty wanted. The person no one saw wound up being a princess in the Kingdom of God and a name no one will ever forget forever and ever. So, for all of us who have ever felt unnoticed, unwanted, unimportant or unloved, remember Leah. Remember that God sees you and He loves you and that’s no small thing. Remember that your story isn’t over yet and you never know what God is up to. Hey may be getting ready to blow your mind in a few thousand years.

2010-11-25T05:41:00.000-08:00

We're in Huntsville for Thanksgiving with the Hulls and we took the kids down to NASA's space and rocket center:

Ghosts

If ghosts were real, they would be among the lamest things in the world. I mean, sure, probably the lamest thing around these days would have to be Brett Favre still trying to play football for the lowly Vikings, but a close second would have to be ghosts. In fact, now I think about it, Brett Favre is a bit like a ghost... a misty, unsubstantial shadow of something that used to really be something hanging about and pointlessly haunting his old stomping grounds... Lame! If ghosts were real, they would probably be scary for the first few times you met one, and then not at all after that. I mean, they can't do anything to you, right? After you really hung out with one, you would quickly learn that they can't hurt you and you could just walk right through them into the next room whenever they tried to annoy you. Annoying... that's what they'd be! After you got over the initial shock of these airborne, ethereal stalkers, you'd simply tell them to get over it and go bother someone else! "Move on there, dude! You're dead! The dream is over! Stop being lame! We're all trying to actually live here!"

Now I know this is all just silliness. I mean, there are no such things as ghosts. Hebrews 9:27 says this, "Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment." So there. Once you're dead, you're dead and gone. People don't hang about, creeping on all their old places and relations, trying to half-exist in the bygone memories of a terrestrial life that has left them far behind. No, people die and then they're gone. They face the Lord and He sorts out the rest. So, why in the world am I talking about how lame ghosts would be if they in fact existed? Well it's because, quite frankly, sometimes I look around and think that I see one swooping about and haunting their distant past when they ought to just move on. Now, don't get me wrong... I'm not talking about literal ghosts here. I'm not seeing disembodied spirits of dead folks floating around. I'm talking about people; real, live people who act just like ghosts; and believe me when I say, it's lame.

Colossians 3 says this: "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming."

If you know Jesus, you died to your old life! When we get too wrapped up in things that have to do with this life, it's like we're ghosts, haunting old memories! We died to all that stuff and now we've been raised up with Christ for a brand new kind of life!! It's time to move on! It's time to leave behind the ethereal phantoms of greed, impurity and the like and step out into the firm reality of true and new life in Jesus!! If you know and love Him, don't get too wrapped up in earthly things! Don't waste your day haunting the old neighborhood of money, worry and terrestrial politics! Give your heart and your energy to the kind of stuff that Jesus cares about! Don't be a ghost... it's lame. Move on. Live. Breathe the fresh air of resurrected life. You're already raised up and hidden with Him in God... So leave all that other stuff behind, or as Paul says, "You died, so put the rest of that junk to death too!" Come and live!

2010-11-17T12:25:00.000-08:00

So, my computer died this week, but I did get an iPad...

Cooler Than You Think

When I was in college, I worked for an after school day care business at an elementary school in Cookeville, TN. It was a good college job that was always filled with some surprising ridiculousness... like the day my boss had to hose off the sidewalk because of a kindergartner who wasn't all that potty trained yet, but whose mother thought boxers would be a good idea... or like the consistent rhythm of lice outbreaks. One mother even shaved her daughter's head... Twice! Well, every fall we would take the kids on a field trip to a local farmer's corn maze and pumpkin patch to go on a hayride and pick out a pumpkin for home. It was always a fairly ridiculous trip... like the time a kid was so allergic to the hay and straw that his little face exploded into a bulbous, oozing, red balloon and one of our leaders had to spend the whole afternoon with him on the bus... or the time a kid got stuck in a rustic-themed obstacle course/fun house slide and got so freaked out that he screamed and then used the bathroom right there on the straw strewn slide.

These were my corn maze experiences. This is the kind of craziness I came to associate with pumpkin patches, so you can imagine my reticence and well, flat out fear when Christy suggested we take our kids to some farm out in the middle of nowhere and do the corn maze thing again. My initial internal reaction? "Lame..."

Long story short, our trip to the pumpkin patch was one of the funnest and sweetest things I've done in a long time. It turned out that Patty and Patrick came into town, so the kids got to spend the day with their sweet cousins, and folks, the corn maze we went to in Halls was awesome!! They had a giant blob buried in the sand that was basically just an enormous trampoline the size of a small house. They had a go cart track for little cars that kids could pedal around. They had a huge sandbox complete with shovels and Tonka trucks. There were slides, a bouncy castle and a great little hayride, and there was a ton more cool stuff there. It was a perfect day, we got some great pictures and had an amazing time. Lesson? The thing I thought would be lame because of some bad experiences wound up being a lot cooler than I thought.

I was reading Colossians 1 this morning and there is a place where Paul shares his prayer for these folks, and he starts building up this crescendo of things he wants for them, and it's a list that starts with walking and ends in all the glorious power of Almighty God... "And we pray this in order that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have..."

Have what?!? What's he building up to here? Paul seems to be pumping up the volume and cranking up the drama so that he can reveal the very height of spiritual maturity! Surely this next statement will represent the most amazing, earth-shattering ministry, right?! Well, maybe not. Or at least, not to our ears... Paul says, "...being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light."

That's the big ending... The height of spiritual maturity and manifestation of all the power of God in a person's life: endurance, patience and gratitude. It may not seem like much, but what God is really working for in the hearts of His people, the thing that really pleases His heart is a person that just patiently hangs in there every day, thanking God for where they are and what He has given. I'm not saying I'm there yet, but the older I get and the farther into this walk I get, it's what I want more and more. It may not look like much to us, but when you try it on, you find it's cooler than you think.

2010-11-11T06:48:00.000-08:00

More pictures from our Fall Break Hike at Frozen Head:

Stats

I’m kind of a nerdy person. I love Star Wars, comic books and every single product manufactured by Apple. I have read every Harry Potter book more than ten times each and can tell you more about the history of Tolkein’s Middle Earth than I can about our current American Congress. Of all this nerdery however, probably the dorkiest thing about me is my participation in Fantasy Football.

I’m fairly sure that if alien life forms from outer space ever visited this planet, they would say that apart from bull running, eating competitions and Joan Rivers, Fantasy Football is the weirdest thing about human beings. I mean, the sport of football is weird enough already, right? Twenty-two guys ensconce themselves in protective padding from head to foot so that they can hit each other as hard as possible for an hour without getting arrested, and the whole point is to see who can take the overgrown bean across a line. Hmm. And the people that are really good at crossing the line with the bean are among the most famous and wealthy people on our planet. Hmm. But the weirdness doesn’t stop there, because millions of people all over the world pretend that they are the owners, managers and coaches of the various millionaire bean toters (even though they’re not) and stage make-believe competitions loosely based on the actual toting of the bean.

Wow. When you break it down and analyze it like that, I admit it’s pretty dang weird. Here’s the thing: I love it. I’m one of those guys. I am a fully-grown man with a loving wife, three kids and a mortgage who basically plays make-believe dollhouse using statistics from the real-life athletic performances of actual people like Peyton Manning and Braylon Edwards. It’s part poker, part chess and part reality show that all come together to make a socially acceptable male drama, and the whole thing revolves around stats... Numbers. How many yards will they get on Sunday? How many points will that defense allow? Every day and all day long, millions of guys check their computers, crunch the numbers and weigh the advice of the experts, wondering who is going to put up the most impressive stats. And none of it is even real! What if you had stats? What if there was a system of measurement that weighed the performance of your life and spiritual growth? What if someone was betting on you, hoping you would have a really good day today? Yikes!

For quarterbacks and wide receivers there are a variety of stats that make them valuable players, and most people would probably name a million things that mark measurable spiritual maturity, but according to the Apostle Paul, there is only one thing that matters. For Paul, there is one stat, and it is love. In 1 Corinthians 13 he says, "If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing."

No matter how dynamic I think my ministry is, no matter what results I think I'm getting and no matter what anyone else tells me about myself, if I don't love, I don't have anything. Love is the most important thing about me and the only stat that counts, period.

2010-11-05T03:45:00.000-07:00

Anna read her first chapter book silently to herself this week!! (Junie B. First Grader, Cheater Pants) Way to go, girl!

Our little Trunk or Treaters:

Poor Jack after his last minute surgery on Thursday:

Emergency Fervor

This week has been a bit of a ‘drop everything and put out a fire’ kind of week. You see, Jack has been sick for a month. Turns out one of the tubes put in his ears last February came out in the beginning of October and he immediately developed an ear infection that we still haven’t kicked. The poor guy got more and more sick over last month and the only thing the prescribed antibiotics did was serve up a heaping helping of stomach problems that have led to a host of other discomforts. Last week we even had to stop his medicine right in the middle because it was causing him so many more problems than it was curing! All in all, the guy has spent the last few weeks or so in pain, confused, saddle sore, with a faucet for a nose and sleeping badly. When he’s not been completely distracted by tons of people or something really awesome, he’s been fussing. Needless to say, it’s been tough on everybody.

Two days ago I took him in to see his Ear, Nose and Throat doctor, who looked at his dramatically infected ear for the second time in as many weeks and said, “Well Dad, he’s sick.” Yeah... I gathered that. Thanks. After reflecting on the history of this unsuccessful month of treatment, our doctor paused for a second in thought, looked at his watch and then, with an urgent look in his eye, said, “You know what? I think I have a little time tomorrow. You want to just do surgery tomorrow?” “Yes!” I said. “That would be awesome.” And just like that, we entered a whirlwind of getting ready for a surgery to happen in less than 15 hours. Christy and I were so glad that these folks were taking Jack as seriously as we were, and just like that, he was back in surgery yesterday morning. Turns out Jack was even more sick than the doctor first assumed. It was a bit of an emergency and a good thing they did what they did when they did it.

The thing that was interesting to me about this whole situation was how surprised everyone in our lives was to find out Jack was having surgery or was even sick. As far as they knew, and whenever they saw him, he seemed fine. Was he really so sick he needed surgery? Was he really so sick he needed immediate surgical attention? The more I think about that, it strikes me that lots of people are like Jack. They fill their lives up with distractions so that no one really knows the state of emergency that’s going on inside. They look fine on the outside and if you ask them how they’re doing, they’ll say they’re great, but oftentimes the truth is that they need to drop everything and put a fire out... or keep a fire burning.

This morning I was reading Romans 12 where Paul leads off by pleading with these folks to give themselves completely to God. He tells them that they are to be the ‘whole burnt offering’ of the old sacrificial system, completely consumed for the Lord. Paul says that when you look at what God has done for us, it only makes sense to offer yourself completely in this way. Then he spends the rest of the chapter showing what that looks like in real life. In verse 11 he says, “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.” When I read that verse, it made me think of the original ‘whole burnt offering’ sacrifice of the Old Testament, way back in Leviticus chapter 6. Check this out:
The LORD said to Moses: “Give Aaron and his sons this command: ‘These are the regulations for the burnt offering: The burnt offering is to remain on the altar hearth throughout the night, till morning, and the fire must be kept burning on the altar... The fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must not go out. Every morning the priest is to add firewood and arrange the burnt offering on the fire and burn the fat of the fellowship offerings on it. The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out.

How’s your fire doing? There’s nothing more important than keeping it burning. If it’s flagging or dying out, there is nothing more important than tending to it! I bet a lot of people are spiritually dry a lot of the time and never tell anyone. It’s like being sick! It’s like needing surgery! It’s urgent, and if it’s you, tell someone! Get someone you love to pray for you. Don’t let the fire go out! It’s a big deal that all of us do whatever it takes to keep our love for Jesus burning. If you need encouragement or if you’re low on fuel for the fire, don’t go it alone! Don’t pretend you’re okay when you need emergency attention. Drop everything and find someone who will drop everything with you. There’s nothing more important than keeping that fire ablaze.

2010-10-28T10:14:00.000-07:00

It's Fall Break around here, so we took a little family hike at Frozen Head State Park:

Reflexes

I feel like I’ve been punched in the face. No wait, the face isn’t exactly right. I feel like I’ve been kicked in the bank account. I was in Wal-Mart the other day and saw Christmas stuff. Seriously. Wrapping paper, garland and cheap, plastic, robotic snowmen that dance along to “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” were adorning the aisles of the lawn and garden center. Christmas!? How in the world am I going to afford Christmas presents?! It feels like we just finished buying 700 birthday presents last month and Jack is going back to the doctor this afternoon where they will probably prescribe his second $200 antibiotic ear drop in as many weeks. As soon as a little spot of cold weather hit last week, our trusty mini van started making some strange sounds and it looks like replacing the tile in our bathroom is going to be a must. Today I took Norah to her first dentist appointment only to have the dentist smile and say, “Well, you better start saving up for braces, ‘cause they’re in your future!” Future?! What future?! AHHHH!!!

Now, we all have money problems, (unless of course Kanye is reading this, in which case, do you have a tile saw I can borrow?) and we’re all going to keep having those problems. The Scripture promises troubles and problems and says that the first thing we’re supposed to do in the case of hard times is to “count it all joy.” I know this. I knew it when I woke up this morning and immediately felt my mind wandering down the all too familiar and enticing pathway to worry and fear; but I didn’t quite know how to count it all joy. All I could think of was the wall of problems surrounding me and a host of impossible solutions that flitted in and out of my mind; each scheme more ridiculous than the last and all of them about as solid as a puff of smoke. There I was frantically trying to invent ways out of my various troubles, and instead of counting them all joy, I just simply counted them.

Then I read Psalm 44. Have you read it in a while? It is awesome! Check this out:

“It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them. You are my King and my God, who decrees victories for Jacob. Through you we push back our enemies; through your name we trample our foes. I do not trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory; but you give us victory over our enemies, you put our adversaries to shame. In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name forever.”

Can you believe that?! My reflex in the midst of a problem is to fling myself onto my mental rolodex of possible solutions! It is in a moment of crisis that my mind works the hardest. My wheels crank and my blood pressure rises. Is this me at my best? No way! It may even be me at my worst! My brilliant ideas and solutions are like the swords and bows of the Israelites. They may seem effective and sometimes even impressive, but God is the One who solves problems and wins battles. When a problem arises, instead of flying into a fever pitch of brainstorming a way out, I just need to stop. I need to stop where I am and say, “I don’t trust in my own wisdom. I don’t know the way out of this. I can’t solve this problem, but Lord, You know what to do. In You, oh God I will make my boast.” I need to reprogram my reflexes. I don’t need better ideas or perfect solutions or even more money; I just need God. I need Him in order to make it.

2010-10-21T08:11:00.000-07:00

This week we took high school folks to Cades Cove:

And Jack turned 2!! (Check out his new axe)

Gift Wrap

“Go ahead, Jack, open it!”

“Come on dude, just rip into it!”

“Tear it, Jack. You can do it!”

These were the words of encouragement everyone was giving Jack as he looked at his birthday present with a blank face last week. He just sort of sat there, not opening it. It was surprising to say the least because normally, when a kid sees their birthday present, it only exists in that nice, neat, wrapped-up form for a few nano seconds before an explosion of ribbon and a tsunami of tissue paper break forth on the room of expectant gift givers frantically clicking snapshots of the ensuing delight. This little family birthday bash was as quiet as a police stake-out and included the same type of tense waiting. Jack just didn’t open his present. He didn’t know what to do.

Then it occurred to Christy that this was only his second birthday after all, and he hadn’t had a whole lot of opportunities to receive wrapped gifts. As a result, he hadn’t really learned that there are acceptable times to rip, tear and slash paper with all the ferocity of a horde of pillaging Vikings. You see, normally, if Jack ripped up some paper, he found himself in trouble, because (as he was rapidly learning) you can’t tear pages of library books, your sister’s newest piece of artwork or the third chapter of Deuteronomy. And now we were all huddled around him, encouraging to tear some paper off of this large, rectangular box. I’m sure Jack was thinking to himself, “No way, folks! I’m not about to tear this paper. I’m not sure why you’re all trying to trick me, but it doesn’t end well for me when I do this!”

When we finally tore back enough of the paper for Jack to see that there was a shiny new guitar inside the box, he forgot his reservations and finished off the rest of the wrapping to claim his gift, but it took a while. His hesitation to tear into his present was really cute, but I’m sure that one day soon, when he’s received enough gifts, he’ll figure out that wrapping paper equals presents, and that he can tear all he wants in that case. Once that day comes, opening the gifts probably won’t be that big of a deal anymore. The excitement fades with familiarity. I think this happens to everyone. We receive so much that many of us have forgotten the joy and excitement of opening the gift.

James chapter 1 says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.” Your life is a gift. Your spiritual life and your physical life were given to you freely by God. Every morning, when you open your eyes, you’re pulling back the wrapping paper of a gift God has given you. He didn’t have to give you another day. If you woke up today and knew your name, you received a present from God Almighty. Did you happen to say, “Thanks?”

I truly believe that one of the biggest problems people have is that they have forgotten to say thanks. We get out of bed, day after day, go to the bathroom, eat our breakfast, head out to the office or to school and just start living our whole day as if we were powering ourselves through this world on our own steam. Most people’s problem is that they forget that they have breath in their lungs because there is a God in heaven who is merciful and gives gifts. I sincerely believe that if you started everyday by stopping, your life would change from top to bottom. Give it a try sometime... maybe even right now. Relish the feeling of unwrapping God’s gift to you. Stop what you’re doing, close your eyes and say to Him, “Thank you. Thank you for another day. You didn’t have to give me this gift, but you did because you love me. Thank you.”

2010-10-14T09:11:00.000-07:00

Last week I got to play music at Young Life's Windy Gap!!

And Anna turned 7!! Check out her present: two parakeets!

Keira and Ashley

Our daughter is obsessed with animals. I guess that all little kids like animals to some degree and I’m sure that for kids under the age of 10, one of the most popular future occupations has got to be Veterinarian, but Anna could be the ring leader of this popular fascination. For years she has pined for a pet. She would harass me for a dog every single day and all day long if I had not already convinced her of the utter uselessness of repetition on that score. She knows very well that I refuse to even discuss the matter of bringing a dog into my home until everyone in said home is well out of diapers and pull-ups. I am not going to be personally responsible for dealing with the fecal matter of two kinds of mammal. In return, Anna has assured me that she loves me very much, and loves living at home, but is looking forward to the day when she has her own place just so she can buy a puppy, first thing.

Anna dreams about pets. She talks about pets. She ties string around the inanimate necks of her stuffed animals and drags them around the house. She imagines her younger siblings to be pretend animals and somehow even becomes her own imaginary pet! She comes home from school, binds leaves of paper together into books that she writes and illustrates about her going to the pet store and picking out some animal for her very own. Wow. Intense, right? Yeah... well, a few weeks ago, Christy diagnosed this very singular condition right before we were about to go to bed when she very solemnly said to me, “Babe, our little girl is pet-deprived.”

Pet-deprived?! Is that like being asthmatic or having an immune deficiency? Do we need to call someone? No... turns out we were starting a conversation about Anna’s birthday. And look, before you jump to any conclusions, no! We did not get a dog or a cat or anything like that. Jack is still firmly kicking it in diapers and I am still stalwart in my ‘no dog till that day’ thing. We decided to get Anna some birds. Two birds to be exact: a couple of parakeets. We got a cage, some food, a perch or two, the whole nine yards. On Anna’s birthday, the family were all sitting around as I brought out the cage covered in a sheet. Anna had no idea what it was. When she uncovered it, she stared blankly at the birds for a moment and then a smile broke across her face as she exclaimed, “A Pet! I got a pet! I got a pet!” I said, “You’ve got two pets.” and she returned, “I got TWO pets!” Christy said, “Anna, you get to name them and they’re both girls.” And then, without waiting, deliberating or even thinking, Anna busted out, “The white one is named Keira and the yellow one is Ashley.”

Whoa! My head was spinning... I thought this naming process would take some time and maybe even some editing, but no. She busted those names out as if she had been waiting on this day her whole life. That little heart of hers was so filled with love for animals and so ecstatic to find that she finally had some animals to love, that the names Keira and Ashley just burst right out of her heart and landed gently on those feathery little heads.

This week I have been reading and re-reading John chapter 10 where Jesus calls Himself the “Good Shepherd.” I noticed something the other day that I’ve never really seen before. Jesus says, “The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.” I love how it says that He calls His own by name. He owns His sheep. They’re His, and He knows their names because He probably named them. There’s someone who knows you and made you the way you are because He absolutely loves you. He loves who you are. His overjoyed heart loves to have you as His and He delights in being followed by His own! His favorite day was probably the day you became His!

2010-10-07T07:18:00.000-07:00

It was a BIG week around here...

We traveled to Chicago to see our dear friends Jed and Hallie tie the knot!

We had a visit from Dylan, Penny and Sarah from Texas!

And received the first shipment of my new CD! (which you can listen to or buy if you visit my website by clicking right HERE ...Go for it!)

It’s About Time

I’ve been waiting for this day. Actually, I’ve been praying for this day. In fact, I was just telling a couple of my friends at breakfast this morning about how I’ve been praying for this day. So, what happened to day that was an answer to prayer? Well, it’s going to sound weird when you first hear it, but here goes: Today, Anna got in trouble at school...

Let me give you a little back story. You see, Anna is a great kid. Now, I know everyone thinks their kid is great and all, but I’m telling you, Anna is the kind of kid that teachers love to have in their classes. She loves school. She loves teachers. She loves to please people and loves to have the good opinion of authority figures. She loves rules and she loves to keep them. She’s in first grade right now and so far has never gotten in trouble in school... at all. In her classroom, everyone has a traffic light and when you get in trouble, you have to change your light. Each light change represents a different disciplinary consequence. A week or so ago, Anna was telling me a story about a boy in her lass who had to change his light twice that day and how much trouble he was in. I asked Anna if she had to change her light and she flipped out. “Dad!” she said, “I have never had to change my light, ever!”

On the one hand, it’s great that she’s such a fine student and good little citizen in her classroom, but on the other hand, Christy and I don’t want her to feel like she has to be perfect. Anna is the kind of kid that is devastated if she gets in trouble or has to be corrected. She’s harder on herself than anyone else is, and that is exactly why I’ve been praying for this day. I want Anna to mess up. I want her to fall short and get in trouble so that she learns from her mom and dad that it’s okay and that she’s still loved. In other words, I have been longing for an opportunity to really show her grace on her own terms.

The call came while I was at lunch. Wednesday is my day to pick up Anna from school and Christy called to let me know what I was in for... Anna’s teacher had called the house today because Anna didn’t follow directions and had to change her light. Actually, that’s not why her teacher called. It’s not the practice of first grade teachers to call home after one little light change, but poor Anna was so emotionally devastated by this occurrence that Christy received a call. I was so excited! Anna changed her light! I jumped in my car and drove to the school. There she was in the car line waiting to be picked up with a fragile, pensive look on her face. The door opened, she got in and with a trembling voice uttered, “Dad, today I had to change my light.” A couple of tears eased their way out before she saw my face beaming at her with the biggest, warmest smile I could muster. As jovially as I could, I said, “Anna! I love you!”

Why would I pray for my child to get in trouble? Why would I hope for her to get busted for doing wrong? Because! There’s nothing in this world better for a human heart than a self-awareness of the necessity of grace! Finding out that we’re weak, broken, imperfect and needy is the beginning of all our eternal happiness! Paul says in Romans 3 that this is the very reason God gave us the Ten Commandments... to close every bragging mouth before God and show everyone they need Him! He says in Romans chapter 11 that, “God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.” Isn’t that amazing? God is going to make sure we know we need Him. It’s good to find out you need mercy and grace, because mercy and grace are abundant in Christ!

After Anna buckled up her seat belt, I asked her if I could hold her hand, and she said I could. Within a couple of minutes, the tears were gone and she was laughing and telling me about her day, squeezing my hand all the way home.

2010-09-30T10:13:00.000-07:00

Something To Say

You know that feeling when you think something is going to be the worst thing of all time and it actually winds up being pretty great? Well, a few weeks ago we had to take Anna to the dentist to get a tooth pulled. One of her two front permanent teeth was coming in too far back and wasn’t putting any pressure on the two little baby teeth in front that needed to fall out, so they weren’t getting loose. We took her to the dentist so he could have a look and he encouraged her to keep working on making the two baby teeth loose for another month or so. If they didn’t come out, he very quietly told me he’d have to pull them. Every day we told Anna to work on those teeth, but no real change came. Finally I told Anna the news I knew she wouldn’t want to hear... if she didn’t get them out, the dentist would have to pull them. Anna’s eyes instantaneously filled with tears and she ran into the bathroom crying. A few minutes later she emerged having yanked one of the two offending teeth out of her head with so much force, she actually broke it.

Thing was, that main front baby tooth wouldn’t budge, and we had to have it pulled. Anna was devastated and freaked out, but in the end, it was awesome! The dentist was amazing and gentle and Anna was glad to be free of those teeth. In the same vein, last week I was reading the book of Isaiah and came across something that had me spiralling down into a state of instantaneous freak out. In chapter 43, the Lord says, “Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth- everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

Created for His glory?! Do you realize what this means? I t means I have been a total failure! Glory just means that you really and truly represent something... You fully express who or what that thing is. If God created me for His glory, I was supposed to be saying all kinds of stuff about Him! In fact, every single person ever made was supposed to express some individual and beautiful thing about who God is. We were all supposed to have something to say about the One who made us, but... no one really has! I mean, every now and then you see glimpses of something about Him: leadership in Lincoln, courage in Churchill, humor in Twain, tenderness and love in that person most dear to you, but for the most part, we haven’t said what we should have. As the Apostle Paul said, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Which means that as a race, we have failed and have nothing to say, right?

Actually, no... in spite of our failure, really because of our failure, we have something beautiful to say. We have a new and precious something to say that glorifies out God more than anything we could have said without having failed. So what is it? Well, in Luke 7 Jesus was having dinner at the home of a Pharisee named Simon when all of a sudden a woman walked in uninvited. She was a big-time sinner and everyone knew it. But she had found the forgiveness of Jesus and no one was going to stop her from showing it. She went up behind Jesus weeping uncontrollably so that her tears fell on his feet. She poured out her most treasured gift, a jar of expensive perfume, onto His feet and it mingled with her tears. She wiped his feet with her hair and though the Pharisees were scandalized, Jesus loved every second of it. Gratitude. Love. The glory of God. Even though we failed to be who we were made to be, Jesus came and offered Himself for our forgiveness. Now we have something to say: gratitude overflowing from a saved and thankful heart of love for Jesus is glorious indeed!

2010-09-23T10:02:00.000-07:00

Here are some old pictures of Anna and Norah for those of you who appreciate nostalgia:

Unless There is a King

Disclaimer: I fully intend this to be my last post involving The Lord of The Rings for quite a while. I know it’s been a little excessive lately, but humor me just this one more time...

I just finished reading an article saying that the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held hearings today to determine just how bad the threat of a terrorist attack on the U.S. actually is. At the end of the hearing they basically decided that we’re hosed. The reporter I read suggested spending the weekend hiding under a couch. Janet Napolitano said, “The threats come from a broader array of groups and regions. It comes from a wider variety of harder-to-detect tactics. And it is aimed at harder-to-secure places than before.” Translation = the world is scarier than ever! How are we supposed to protect ourselves against these threats? How are we supposed to decide who to trust? How are we supposed to sleep at night? If the findings of these committees are right, we live in a dangerous, scary world and should probably be shaking in our boots all the time!

Well, that is to say, we should be afraid all the time if there is no God.

On the other hand, if the Bible is true and the Risen Lord Jesus Christ is seated on a throne at the right hand of God Almighty, then we shouldn’t waste one more second being afraid! If the Lord Jesus is the King of everything, we should take all that energy we invest in to fear and reallocate it to loving and reaching those who would seek our harm. If Jesus, who died and was raised on the third day is Alive and in control as the Bible says He is, then we should remember and obey His command in Matthew 10 which says, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

Folks who believe in and love Jesus ought to be intensely passionate about loving and reaching the lost, but cool as a cucumber when it comes to the ever-mounting threats propagated by fear mongering news outlets. Jesus told us not to worry about tomorrow, but demographic analysts and experts who study population trends would have us quaking in our homes about what they say will happen in 15 years’ time. They would have us desperately trying to biologically reverse the growing numbers of our so-called enemies by going on some kind of crusade of procreation, but those of us who have and love the Word of God know that we have been “predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity to the purpose of His will.” There is absolutely nothing outside of God’s control and He already knows how this all ends. You see, there is a King over everything and soon, He will reveal Himself to this world.

At the end of The Lord of The Rings, the beloved Hobbits made it back home to the Shire to find everything changed. All the land had been ravaged. The leadership was overturned by cruel and hateful men. Their entire way of life had been destroyed and every Hobbit was hiding behind their doors, afraid all of the time. That is, until Sam, Frodo, Merry and Pippin returned. They saw the changes and although they were troubled, they were not afraid. In fact, they laughed a little. Why? Because they had been with the King. They knew he was in charge and would be coming soon to make all things right and all things new. When one of the new ‘Ruffians’ tried to scare the Hobbits, Frodo replied, “For one thing, I see you’re behind the times and the news here. Much has happened since you left the South. Your day is over, and all other ruffians’. The Dark Tower has fallen, and there is a King in Gondor... your precious master is a beggar in the wilderness.”

The world is indeed a dangerous and scary place, unless there is a King on His throne, and if you know and love Him, you never need fear another moment in your untouchable, eternal life.

2010-09-16T10:29:00.000-07:00

With Great Praise

I’ve cried too much today. Now my face feels sore and my eyes sting and I feel simply emotionally tired. The worst part? All those tears were over something that didn’t even really happen!! I’ve spent the last thirty minutes or so sobbing over a couple of hobbits who don’t even exist and now the only thing I feel like doing is writing about them! Yes, I know, The Lord of the Rings is just a book and Frodo and Sam are not real people. I know that Gondor, Ithilien and Orodruin were just inventions of a middle-aged English linguist and that none of the great battles and brave deeds described in those pages really happened, but something I came across in that amazing story shook me to the core today. To borrow Professor Tolkien’s term, it smote my heart.

You see, I want to turn loose of this world. More and more as I go through the days of my own pilgrimage here, I want to relax my grip on all the earthly things that both pick me up and burden me down. I want to forge a gaze so fixed on the rock solid reality of the world to come that both the present troubles and prizes of this world fade into the ethereal mist that they really are. In other words, I want a homeward heart.

This afternoon, as I was trudging along with Sam and Frodo at the very end of their quest, something happened in the story (Yes, I know it didn’t really happen) that resonated with my homeward heart. When it happened, I burst into tears, because it’s the thing above all things that I’m looking forward to. You see, a few years back, my pastor pointed me to a verse in chapter 4 of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians which has become one of my very favorites. Paul says, “Judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive His praise from God.”

Behold the grace of God! He sends His own Son to die in our place, forgives our sin and makes a place for us in His eternal kingdom; but not only that, at the world’s end, the King and God over all, who has forgotten our offenses and crimes will praise those He has bought to the wonder and bliss of our quaking, grateful hearts. Wow. Can you dare to imagine the joy of that moment? It’s something I love to think about and long to believe with all my heart, but sometimes I forget and get burdened down with my own failures and filled with doubt.

That’s where I was today when Sam and Frodo made it to the very end. The ring was destroyed and the hobbits fell asleep from dreadful pain and weariness on the crumbling slopes of Mount Doom. As they slept, they were carried off by the Great Eagles to the camp of the King. When Sam awoke, he found himself in a bed within a tent, surrounded by the smell of flowers. Gandalf was there and said that he and Frodo must dress and present themselves to the King, so they put on their old ripped and torn rags and left the tent. When they did, they saw knights in shining mail, bowing down to the hobbits, then drawing swords and shaking spears, blowing horns and trumpets and proclaiming with loud voices, “Praise them with great praise! Frodo and Samwise!” Then Aragorn, the King placed them on his throne, bowed down to them and shouted out, “Praise them with great praise!” Finally, a minstrel of Gondor sang a song of their long toil and...

“When Sam heard that, he laughed aloud for sheer delight, and he stood up and cried: ‘O great glory and splendour! And all my wishes have come true!’ And then he wept. And all the host laughed and wept, and in the midst of their merriment and tears, the clear voice of the minstrel rose like silver and gold, and all the men were hushed. And he sang to them until their hearts, wounded with sweet words, overflowed, and their joy was like swords, and they passed in thought out to regions where pain and delight flow together and tears are the very wine of blessedness.”

2010-09-09T07:29:00.000-07:00

Part Of The Story

This week our pastor is off across the Atlantic Ocean having an adventure in Spain. He is waking up to fair mornings in a rustic stone farmhouse out in the middle of a picturesque landscape of rolling green hills. Hundreds of people with longing hearts from countries all over this world will walk past his door today wondering if God is, and hoping they can find Him. Our dear brother will tell them of the Lord in their own language with all the compassion, humor and love that dwells in that remarkable heart of his. When all is said and done, this will be a week for the missionary record books filled with stories worth telling and retellling, again and again.

Do you ever wish you were part of some adventure like that one? Do you ever long to be part of the Story? Do you ever look at your own life wondering if it mattered in the spiritual scheme of things that you got up and did your thing today? This morning I woke up early, got out of bed and went to work. A bit later I took my car to the shop to get repaired, hung out with my two younger kids while the bug guy sprayed the house and then went back to work. Hmm. Doesn’t sound too adventurous, does it? And yet, I’m not so sure we can make that call.

Jesus said that if you want to be great in God’s kingdom, you have to become like little children and like servants; and they aren’t the ones who go off to war, fame and valor. He said there’s just about nothing more important than getting someone in need a cup of cold water. Paul said we should make it our ambition to lead a quiet life and mind our own business! He also said that the whole point of the church is to prove to invisible armies of spiritual forces just how wise and awesome God really is, and they sure do have to watch a bunch of normal, old, everyday lives! What if living our normal little lives with sincere faithfulness, genuine love and devotion to Jesus is the most adventurous thing we could possibly do? What if you are an essential character in the Great Story already? What if working your job, raising your kids or making your way through school is exactly the adventure He’s called you into, and living your plain-ole life with persistence and endurance by His strength winds up being one of the brave deeds of the children of men in the history of this world?

I’m re-reading the Lord of the Rings right now and I just finished the part where Sam and Frodo are almost to Mordor and Sam begins to reflect on the stories and songs of old. He says, “We shouldn’t be here at all, if we’d known more about it before we started. But I suppose it’s often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of sport as you might say. But that’s not the way of it... Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually - their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t.”

You, whoever you are, are right smack dab in the midst of a crucial point in the Great Story and no one can live your tale but you. Today you find yourself facing challenges and problems that were laid out for you alone and the adventure does not lie in the scope of the deed, but in simply seeing it through. Great or small, you have a part to play and the One who set the board is waiting for you to call out to Him for strength and guidance. Your calling is that of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 16 which says, “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love.” And one day, you’ll see that you were a character in the Tale, a hero in the Song.

2010-09-02T09:43:00.001-07:00

The Kingdom

Every month our board of elders meets to discuss the state of our church and make various leadership decisions. We begin these meetings in the only way leadership meetings ought to begin: with prayer. During the prayer time at the beginning of our last meeting, one of my brothers in the group said something that took me aback. In fact, I don’t know if I’ve ever heard someone pray this sentence before...

In the midst of a sweet prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord, he said, “And dear Lord, I thank You for the kingdom of God.”

Whoa.

Have you ever heard someone pray that? I don’t think I have. Man, I liked it though. Since that Tuesday night, I have been mindful not only of that prayer but about how thankful I actually am for the Kingdom of God. When you step back for a second and think about it, it’s an amazing and beautiful thing God is doing and has done... The Father of life and love has not only made a way for rebellious villains to be forgiven, but when we come to Him in faith, he brings us into a fellowship of ex-rebels turned children of God! The Apostle John said it better: “To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.”

This is fantastic and amazing news! As soon as I trusted in Christ I gained brothers and sisters and fellow soldiers and subjects of God! My all-time favorite heroes are my real-life big brothers! One day I’ll really meet folks like C.S. Lewis, Casper Ten Boom, John Newton and Isaac Watts! When I go to heaven, I am going to get to spend time with people I didn’t get to know for long enough here on earth! My Dad’s precious parents are there, along with my dear Aunt Jean. Pastor Stuckey is there, (the man who kissed me the very first and only time I got to meet him) and because of the Kingdom of God, that precious saint is my brother! We are the kin of folks like Paul, Daniel and Job! We are related to thousands upon thousands of brothers and sisters who have lived and suffered and died and served Christ in total anonymity to the wonder of the angelic armies of God!

But it gets even better! You see, since God has made us His kids through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus, we are surrounded by family right here and now! We get to be the body of Christ actually at work in the world; healing the hurting, loving the broken and reaching the lost! We are connected to Christians in other churches, other towns, other countries and other continents all over this world! Whenever we meet to pray and praise our Lord, we join that praise to the worship of millions of His beloved children all over the place! And not only that, but we are connected to saints right here in our little church... men and women of God gifted by Him for service and empowered by the Holy Spirit Himself! We have friends who love Jesus... friends who love us... friends who are fighting alongside us and are there for us! We have people. They’ll pray if we need it and help when we need it. We have people who need us and they are our kindred, bound to us by the precious blood of Jesus. We are not alone in this world, but are living stones being built up into something sweet, strong, beautiful, eternal and filled with the love of the Father of life! In the words of my brother, “Dear Lord, I thank you for the Kingdom of God!”

2010-08-26T11:16:00.000-07:00

Knowing What To Do

Warning: The following essay is rife with content that is graphic in nature, which may disturb those who have a weak constitution. The experience described is commonplace for parents of young children, but has the potential to shock those who have not undergone the various trials of parenthood. I have recorded the experience with what I believe to be a redeeming spiritual insight or two which I hope will edify the reader, so you may choose to read on, or stop right here. Either way, you have been warned...

Fortunately, it was bath night, so I was already intending to dunk Norah into the tub. I had already given Jack his bath and had taken him into his room to dry him off and get him in his pajamas when I heard Norah scream. It wasn’t her loudest scream, but it was troubled and I could tell as soon as I heard it that she was on the verge of crying. I left Jack sitting on the changing table and rushed into the bathroom to find that Norah had diarrhea, but had not made it to the toilet... the poor girl was standing there not sure what to do. It was on her clothes, on her and all over the bathmat. I called out to Christy for help with Jack so that he didn’t take a swan dive off of the changing table and rushed back into the bathroom to sort out the you know what.

I managed to get Norah out of the rest of her clothes and onto the toilet. I managed to start the new bath water and I managed to comfort Norah, I think. The situation was fairly under control with the exception of one huge factor: I had no idea how to handle the bathmat. I mean, I knew it needed to go into the washing machine, (if not the trash can) but what to do with all the excess stuff? I felt like I need to get rid of that first before I could head to the washing machine, but I was at a total loss. I was thinking hard, tiptoeing around the problem with the grace and skill of a ballet dancer. Norah watched me with wide eyes and said, “Dad, be careful. You don’t want to get any poo on your socks!”

Finally Christy finished with Jack and came to check on us. I just looked up and said, “I’m not really sure what to do at this point.” I have to pause the story here and say that this was one of those moments in observing motherhood that filled me with awe and thankfulness for my wife. Without hesitating, without even blinking, she said, “I know what to do” and got to work. In the blink of an eye she produced a cup out of thin air and started scooping up the offending spot. In about two seconds, she had the problem solved, Norah in the bath, laughing and singing, and the bathmat in the washing machine, soaking in detergent and oxy clean. I had a meeting at church that night and by the time I got home, Norah was sleeping peacefully in her bed; clean, happy and at rest. The bathmat was back on the bathroom floor, clean as a whistle and Christy was on the couch paying all the bills with a smile on her face as if nothing at all had ever happened.

What!?

When I think back on that little scene, I am reminded of our Father in heaven who always knows what to do when we’re sick with sin, stuck, confused, helpless, upset and dirty. I think about 1 John 1:9 which says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” I think about Zechariah chapter 3 when the High Priest Joshua stood before the Lord covered in dirty clothes with Satan on his right side accusing him. Joshua didn’t know what to do! He was helpless and stuck, but the Lord said, “Take off his filthy clothes... See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you.” Just like a mother in the midst of the mess, our Lord knows what to do and He has done it! And we rest at ease in our beds on the other side of mercy, clean and at peace.

2010-08-19T06:17:00.000-07:00

Here's our Anna on her first day of First Grade!!!

Fly On...

Anna started first grade this week... FIRST GRADE!! Are you kidding me?! I know I probably said this when she started Kindergarten last year, but: How did this happen!? And how in the world was Kindergarten a year ago!? Was it really almost seven years ago that I first held her in the hospital? Didn’t she just start giggling a few weeks ago? Wasn’t it only yesterday that she started walking? Oh man, this is going so fast it’s making my head spin... I can’t slow her down and there’s no hope of stopping this madness. Everyone said that these years would fly past us and they were right... Anna just keeps on flapping her sweet little wings right in front of us. Before we know it, she’ll be gone.

As we dropped her off for first grade on Monday, it hit me just how desperate my prayers for her are becoming. I find myself gripping my pen a little too tightly as I scrawl out frantic pleas to the Lord. I’m begging Him to help her, to draw her to Himself, to pour out His love into her heart through the Holy Spirit and to give her a heart that loves to be His. I pray that He’ll guide her, shepherd her through the mess of this world along the pathway of some beautiful plan that He’s hatched for her very best. Everyday she gets bigger and older and more independent of her little ‘ole earthly dad and the more aware of it I am, the more desperate my prayers become.

In Psalm 127, Solomon said that children are like arrows. “Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth.” As much as you want to, you’re not supposed to hold on to your kids, you’re supposed to shoot them out there and send them flying through the air, blazing the trail of God’s will for their lives. The night before Anna’s first day of Kindergarten, as hard as it was for her to utter the words, my wife held Anna’s hand and prayed over that little arrow, that the Lord would shoot her out there far and swift. Maybe I’m overreacting... it’s only first grade after all, and we’ve still got a long way to go, but it’s tough. I’m putting all of my eggs in the basket of the Holy Spirit.

This is a good thing and it’s teaching me some difficult, but necessary stuff about control. See,the main reason I’m scared about the future and about my kids is that in some way, I must still think that I have some control over them and over what’s going to happen to them. Well, I don’t. We don’t have control over anything! In fact, our Lord said, “Don’t swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black.” Anna is in God’s hands. She belongs to Him. She’s really His child anyway, and so am I. It’s good to let go, to trust God and to let Him do is job. As these painful truths were hitting me in the face early one morning, this song eased its way out of my quaking little heart:

LITTLE BIRD

Fly on my little bird
Right up above the clouds
Sweet wind, won’t You carry her
She’s in your hands now

I can’t see where her feet are gonna light
But You can keep those little wings in flight,
She’s in Your sight
(CHORUS)

Hold her near when she breaks her little wing
‘Cause I long to hear the flying song she sings,
So let it ring
(CHORUS)

2010-08-13T12:25:00.000-07:00

Have You Checked This Out Yet?

A brand new blog called "Fairest Of Ten Thousand" - short, bite-sized paragraphs on why I love Jesus.

2010-08-12T11:56:00.000-07:00

A couple shots from around the house:

And then a couple shots from our excellent vacation:

Debt

Being is debt is the worst. It feels like a trap. See, if you’re in debt, it’s because you couldn’t afford to pay for something in the first place, but you got it anyway and now the amount you couldn't afford continually grows more unaffordable all the time even though the whatever it was you couldn’t afford is getting more and more old and worn out. Wow. Not only that, but sometimes you may even get your debt turned over to a collection agency, which is about the worst feeling ever. I’m not totally sure what a collection agency is actually like, but when you get a notice from one in the mail, all you can think about is how much you like your thumbs, how useful they really are and how much you want to keep them. Figures of imaginary and very large Russians with big fists and even larger guns fly into your fragile mind unbidden and all you can think about is getting out of debt!

I remember when we got our first cell phones... we were newlyweds and didn’t know anything about anything. We got the phones, signed the contract and spent the next couple of days calling everyone we knew and talking to them forever. We had no idea that the first bill included two months fees plus a start-up fee. Combined with our naive and outrageous overages, our first bill was over $600!! And did I mention we were broke, collegiate newlyweds?!? It didn’t take long for us to open up the mailbox and find that little yellow slip of paper letting us know that our delinquent bill was being handed over to a collection agency! My heart dropped down into my shoes as I started nervously looking around for the Russians...

Being in debt is like being in prison, and until you’re free of it, your trapped. When you wake up, your joy is sapped and you wind up living the whole day in a state of oppression. Debt is the worst... unless its the good kind, that is. You see, the other day I was reading Romans 13 and it turns out that all of us are actually in debt all the time. You may not know it, but you woke up today in debt, and tomorrow, you will wake up in debt. This will be true of you for the rest of your life, and it’s actually a very good thing. Paul says, “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another.”

You are in debt right now to the people around you, and what do you owe them? Love. Here’s the thing about this debt though: it doesn’t have to be an oppressive prison. In fact, it can be awesome! The reason debt is usually so awful is because you don’t have the money; you can’t pay your debt. You don’t have what it takes. But this debt is different! If Jesus lives inside you, the love of God is flowing through you like rivers of Living Water, giving you the power to actually love everyone. It’s cool... it’s like, you have a debt to love everyone, but you can actually pay this debt, and what’s more, it feels good to pay it! When you ask God to give you the power to really love the folks around you, you’re being the person you were made to be, and nothing fills you up more than that. Halleluah! We’re in debt, and it’s awesome!

2010-07-28T08:56:00.000-07:00

His Own

“Hell on wheels.” he said. “I mean, I’m trying to slow down, but right now all He would see is hell on wheels.”

Darren’s response landed hard on the linoleum floors of that stuffy, cinder-block room. I was back at the Anderson County Jail and we were all sitting on metal folding chairs in the weekly Bible Study that, for at least one guy there, is the only church he’s ever known. I asked the guys this question: “How do you think God sees you?” As soon as I said it, three guys just dropped their heads. Others averted their eyes and some just stared blankly right past me or right through me. Darren shook his head and told us all that God basically sees him going to hell and quickly. Another guy pointed to the page of lyrics that we just finished singing and said, “The first verse of this song pretty much sums it up for me. That is me. That’s how He sees me.”

He was pointing to the lyrics of a brand new song written just this morning, and specifically for those guys. The song is called “His Own” and it’s all about pointing out the difference in who we used to be compared with who we truly are now. It goes like this:

HIS OWN

I was lost, I was aimless
I was broken, I was hopeless
I was hurt, I was lonely
Thinking of myself only
But Jesus made me His own

I’m righteous, forgiven, I’m totally clean
I’m headed to heaven, a child of the King
I’ll never be judged or condemned or alone
‘Cause Jesus has made me His own

I was hard, I was angry
I was trapped, who could save me?
But Jesus died, spilled His own blood
Gave His life out of His love
Now I am His own
(CHORUS)

I was dead, my life showed it
I needed hope and didn’t know it
Now I live, now I’m set free
Now I can be a new me
Since He made me His own
(CHORUS)

We talked about how Jesus paid for all our wrong so that He doesn’t see us in those old ways anymore and He never will again! Sure, I’ve been a mess. Sure, I’ve been a lawbreaker and a liar and a thief and host of other horrible things... yes, those things are true of me, but there is something else that is true of me and this truth is deeper and more true than anything else. It is that Jesus died for me, making me His, which means that I am forgiven and free and righteous and holy in the sight of God. I am completely loved and clean and acceptable. I am His.

This past week I got to watch my favorite songwriter, Andrew Peterson perform songs from his new album. It was a beautiful concert and I won’t soon forget it. But the moment that really stuck in my head was when he sang with such certainty these words,

“I’ve got voices that scream in my head like a siren
Fears that I feel in the night when I sleep
Stupid choices I made when I played in the mire
Like a kid in the mud on some dirty blind street
I’ve got sorrow to spare, I’ve got loneliness too
I’ve got blood on these hands that hold on to the truth
That I am a priest and a prince in the Kingdom of God”

As we left the small cinder-block room at the end of Bible Study, one of the guys came up to me and said, “Bring that new song back next week. We need to sing that one again.”

2010-07-23T03:29:00.000-07:00

Christy and I spent this past week in Chicago serving our Missionaries there along with some of our high school and college folks. Here are a few pics I took one night with the iPhone:

The Best God in the World

Last week some folks in our church gave up a whole week just to love on the kids in our church and give them five days in a row of fun, laughter and partying in Jesus’ name. Whoa, it looked like a BLAST! Everyday my kids came home so pumped, so worn out and so totally in love with Jesus! Man, you can’t beat that. There were sandboxes, homemade t-shirts, cheers, delicious food, a bounce house, a giant slip n’ slide and about a million water balloons and the whole thing went down under the umbrella of loving Jesus... not only that, but it meant that the moms of those kids got five days off from being total, full-time moms! Man, everybody wins!

During the week, all the kids put together a little something that they wanted to present at church during the worship service. It was their version of something called ‘Cardboard Testimonies’ where traditionally, a person will basically tell their whole story in about 15 seconds, using two sides of a big piece of cardboard. One side says, “I used to be this.” or, “I used to do that.” and then they flip the cardboard over and it tells how Jesus changed their lives... well, five-year-olds don’t really have too much of that sort of thing to share about, so they just made their testimonies about “Why I Love Jesus.” Each little kid held a big board that said, “I love Jesus because...” on one side, then they flipped it over and the cards said things like, “He made the world” or, “He let my Mommy have a baby” or “He loves me.”

They were all really cute, and I even got choked up a bit when Anna and Norah flipped their little signs, displaying their sweet love for Jesus for all to see, but my favorite cardboard testimony that morning was written by a little girl named Bethany. She walked to the front of the stage, held up her sign that read, “I love Jesus because...” and then flipped it over and it read “He’s the BEST God in the whole world.”

Wow. I’ve been thinking about that unbelievable bit of theological insight ever since Sunday morning! There are so many things in this world that are trying to be like gods... so many things making promises to fill you up, give you life, tell you you’re important, and on and on, but they can’t deliver! How often do we expect things other than God to do things for us that only God can do?! We think money will make us feel important. We think the right job or the best houses and cars will make us feel like our life has real meaning. We think that government or a specific party or ideology can meet our needs. We think certain relationships will tell us we are loved and wanted and yet, none of these things can really, truly fill us up! None of these things can do for us what Jesus can! There are many things in this world making promises, many things acting like ‘gods’ but only One can really be God. Of all the ‘gods’ in this world, only One can really fill you up! As Bethany said, Jesus is “the BEST God in the whole world.”

Psalm 48 put it this way, “This God will be our God forever and ever, He will be our Guide even to the end.”

2010-07-14T13:06:00.000-07:00

Taking Words With You

Raising humans is hard stuff. Mainly because you wind up spending most of your time furiously arm-wrestling that hereditary selfishness which was passed from Adam to the nameless generations of goofballs, through you and right on down to them. You spend years training them to use their manners and ask for things politely, only to watch them clank their fork down on the plate, down their whole glass of juice in one, (complete with raucous gulps) slam the glass down and belch so loudly the neighbors scoff and shake their heads in horrified disapproval. Then, while you’re still reeling from such a Viking-esque display of barbarous impropriety, that same child looks at you and says, “Hey, Dad. Juice. Here. Now.”

Wait, how did this happen?! You’re thinking to yourself, “They’re so cute, and we’ve been so consistent! How is it that they still don’t always use the so-called ‘magic’ words?” That’s when you, the parent, decide enough is enough. You bow up and take your stand... “No girl, I don’t get juice for people who rudely demand things.” Boom! Deal with that! The challenged child (hopefully) backs down, says I’m sorry and politely asks for the juice.

The question I’ve been asking myself lately is this: “Is it a big deal? It is really all that important that our kids say “Please” and “Thank you” about everything? Are we teaching them a true and valuable lesson, or are we merely passing down a meaningless convention? Well, I actually think it matters, and here’s why: The word ‘Thank’ actually comes from the word, “to think.” It’s like saying, “Hey, someone did something for you. Think about that... you should express your gratitude.” Please and thank you are ways of expressing the fact that you are at someone else’s mercy... it’s humbling and good. It’s as if certain words actually temper and steer your attitude.

This morning I read a really cool verse in Hosea chapter 14. He says, “Take words with you and return to the LORD. Say to him: "Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips. Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount war-horses. We will never again say 'Our gods' to what our own hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion.”

Wow. Not only are we supposed to go to the Lord, but we aren’t supposed go empty handed! We’re supposed to take words with us... take words that temper and steer our attitudes. We’re supposed to go into His presence asking for forgiveness! We’re supposed to go in asking to be received! We’re supposed to express the fact that other things in our lives we used to trust in can’t save us! We’re supposed to admit that only He can fill us up! When we go to meet with Him, we ought to go armed to the teeth with certain words that will guide our hearts into a place of worship and trust. We ought to live all day with words on our lips that express that fact that we are at His mercy! If we take words with us on purpose, we’ll prime the pump for the kinds of hearts He’s looking to find!

2010-07-08T09:46:00.000-07:00

For His Own Sake

Jack likes walking. When he first started moving about on two legs, he couldn’t decide whether he liked walking or crawling more, but that was only because he was still a bit faster on all fours. Now that he has the balance thing all worked out, he loves to walk and I believe that one of the reasons he likes walking is that he hates having dirty hands. If Jack stumbles in the dirt or mulch, he scoffs at the debris hanging on to those little chunky mitts. He wipes his dirty paws on his hair and on his clothes... anything to get the gunk off. Back in the day, when his hands got dirty, he would just look at them, crinkle his face up and cry until someone wiped them off, but now he takes charge because he likes to be clean.

The thing is, as much as Jack likes being clean, it’s nothing compared to how much Christy and I like him to be clean. He loves his bath and even says the word “bath” with much enthusiasm, but we’re the ones who take the initiative to clean him up. I would never have been able to explain this to my fourteen-year-old self, but there is almost nothing cuter and sweeter in this world than a little baby fresh out of the bath! Toweling off that soft, pudgy skin and slipping fresh pj’s over that fluffy head is one of the best things about being a parent... there’s just something in our hearts that not only loves that baby, but loves him to be all fresh and clean. As much as he wants that, we want it even more.

The other day I was reading Isaiah 43 and I was asking God to encourage me... to tell me He loved me and fill my heart with something for that day when I came upon a verse that says, “I, even I am He who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”

Whoa! Sometimes it would be easy to think that God simply tolerates me... that out His outrageous mercy He saved me because I was so messed up and needed to be saved, and wanted to be saved, but that deep down He doesn’t really like me all that much; but look at this! He saved us and forgave us for His own sake! Can you handle this? Sure, I need forgiveness and I love being forgiven, but that’s not the only reason why I’m forgiven! My relationship with God isn’t based on or rooted in my desire or even my need so much as His love! When I wasn’t seeking Him, He was coming after me! When I was running the other way and didn’t want Him, He wanted me! When I needed Him but didn’t even know it or want Him, He saved me for His own sake... in other words, because He just wanted to! He wanted us. As much as we love being His and being clean, He loves having us as His own even more! He doesn’t just tolerate you or put up with you... He is absolutely crazy about you!

2010-07-01T20:03:00.000-07:00

Wedding Day

This past week I found myself hiking up Sharp Top Mountain in Jasper, Georgia surrounded by 400 something high schoolers and Young Life leaders, when one of my favorite high school guys asked me to tell them the story of how Christy and I wound up together. It was a hot morning on day five of Young Life’s week long summer camp at Sharp Top Cove and I was glad to have a story to tell and questions to answer, because it made the steep climb that much more enjoyable. Step by step, the story of our life together unfolded in my memory and came out on the trail. I talked about our first kiss and about those two long years dating long distance. I talked about finally living in the same town and then getting engaged... it was at this particular point that we realized the small group of four or five girls hiking in front of us were listening in... I told the part about how I am the only boy my wife has ever kissed and well, they sort of exploded with girly sighs and admitted that they were listening intently to every detail and asked me to please continue.

I told these kids about how almost everyone tried to talk us out of getting married in college but how it wound up being the best decision we ever made. I told them how sweet and fun it was to know you’d never be alone again now that you could have a slumber party with your best friend every night... I thought about the day we were married almost nine years ago, August 3rd, 2001. I remembered being outside at the Museum of Appalachia surrounded by peacocks and sheep and everyone we loved. I remembered how it had rained all morning, but when that hot august sun burst through those clouds, the rain that had fallen became a mist rolling along the tall, green grass. And I still remember the way I felt when my bride appeared at the end of the aisle smiling wide and walking toward me through the mist like a princess from the very best of fairy tales.

Whoa.

I was a man undone by love, gratitude and joy... joy like palpable flame... red hot gladness pouring from my eyes, down past my cheek to my freshly pressed suit. I was happier than I had ever been... happy in my bride. She was all my joy.

This morning I woke reluctantly and dragged my groggy self out of bed early. I opened my journal and started scratching out illegible prayers. I told the Lord that I was about to go to the Scriptures and I needed Him to open my heart to His word and to open His word to my mind. I asked Him to tell me something... to give me something for this day. I turned to Isaiah 62 and read this: “As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.”

Wow. Really, Lord? That’s the way you feel about me? The way I felt that day when Christy came down the aisle? The way I felt last night when I watched her beautiful face fall so sweetly asleep? You feel that way about me?! You love me like that? Oh man... who can bear this? Who can handle it? How can I cope with the gravity of this love, this truth, and yet, how could I ever live without it?

2010-06-17T12:13:00.000-07:00

My Own Worst Enemy

A couple of weeks ago Christy had to run some errands, which meant that I was going to be with the kids, making dinner and cleaning up. I wanted to keep them occupied and interested in something while I made dinner so that they didn’t just trash the house, so I came up with the idea of having them write and illustrate story books for Christy. First of all, let me say that in my extremely biased opinion, both of these monumental works should be published. Norah wrote a story about a butterfly and decided to employ the very Avant-Garde technique of using precisely the same illustration for every page of the book. Anna wrote a book about rainbows which is very informative and entertaining and uses the correct color order on every rainbow.

The thing that surprised me in the midst of all this creative output was Anna’s attitude toward her own book. During the process of writing and drawing, she kept looking over at Norah’s book and encouraging her. She would tell Norah how much liked the butterflies she was drawing and how pretty it looked and then she would follow up by bashing her own drawings, saying things like, “Norah, your book is really beautiful, but I think my book is just really ugly.” Now, you may be thinking, “Well, she was just fishing for compliments... she just wanted to hear someone tell her how awesome her book was.” And maybe that’s the case, but I don’t really think so. When she’s pumped about something she’s done, she’s not afraid to say it. In this case, she seemed to be sincere. I encouraged her a ton about her story and her illustrations, which were really, very cool, but she was convinced it wasn’t very good.

I think most folks do this kind of thing to themselves constantly. I know I do. We don’t see what we’re good at, we don’t know what we’re doing here, we want to be used by God, but don’t really know if that’s happening. If you’re like me, you may even catch an occasional glimpse of how God is using you, only to think, “Yeah, but I bet He’s settling. I’m pretty sure He’d rather use someone else for this...” What I’m talking about isn’t just low self-esteem, it’s spiritual self-sabotage. I look around at other folks and see God at work in their lives, but then I look at myself and see mainly my failures, struggles and doubts. As Mike Mason said one time, if I had any friends that spoke to me the way I speak to myself, I’d fire them as my friend!

In 1 Peter 2, he says, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” In Colossians 3, Paul calls us, “God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved.” You see, the solution to this issue is not about having more self confidence... it’s simply about believing God! He says He picked me. He says I’m different than other folks to Him. He says I’m one of His people. He says I’m holy and dearly loved! He says He wanted me because He loved me. When it comes right down to it, I don’t have the right to make more of myself than God does, but at the same time, I don’t have any right to say anything less about myself than God does either. If He says it, He means it and it’s true. I’m lovable, useful and special to God, and so are you.

2010-06-10T11:35:00.000-07:00

Some pics of Norah reading with Abby this week:

Waiting

Doesn’t it seem like a lot of our lives are devoted to waiting? Think about it... in the morning, we wait for the water to heat up, wait for the toaster to pop, wait for the bathroom to be free and wait to find out if it’s a snow day or not. We wait for the kids to get their socks and shoes on, wait for a good song on the radio, wait at the red light, wait for coffee in the drive through and then wait for that guy to take his sweet time pulling out of our parking space. We wait for that lady to read the nutrition label on every single can of soup twice before making a choice so we can grab the one we’ve been staring at for 27 minutes and then we wait for that same lady to be the only human being on planet earth who still writes checks. We wait on prescriptions as well as roller coasters and we can’t wait for our favorite movie to be released. In the late eighties, some of us were even “Waiting on a Star to Fall.”

By the way, has anyone found the loophole when it comes to the waiting room at a doctor’s office? I mean, some people say you have to get there 15 minutes early or you’ll have to wait for an hour, but I’ve arrived over 30 minutes early and had to wait longer than an hour. On the other hand, I’ve had times where I’ve arrived right on time or a couple minutes late and by the time I’m done with the co-pay, they were calling my name! It doesn’t even help to sit down in the waiting room and count the people who were already there, mentally blocking the ones who arrive after you to figure out when you will go, because they skip the line half the time! Then there is the awkwardness of all the other folks in the waiting room... do I talk to them? Do I pretend they don’t exist? Do I try to become friends or simply refuse eye contact? Do I tell them their kid is cute even though mine is way more cute? I mean, what in the world are we supposed to do during all this waiting?!

This morning I read a really cool couple of verses in Luke 23. This was right after our Lord was crucified. Luke says, “Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea and he was waiting for the kingdom of God. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus' body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid.”

The thing that really struck me about this passage was the way Luke said Joseph was “waiting for the kingdom of God.” Usually waiting means doing nothing... I would have thought waiting for the kingdom of God might mean sitting around on your hands just waiting for God to make this thing happen, but that’s not the way Joseph waited! Luke says that his waiting involved a whole lot of action! He stood up to the rest of the Sanhedrin when he thought they were wrong. When Jesus was dead, He stood up in Pilate’s face and asked for the body. Then he tenderly wrapped the body and placed our Lord in his own brand new tomb.

It turns out that the Greek word we’ve translated “waiting” is used other places in the New Testament and the other times it’s used, it’s translated “looking for,” “accepting” and even “receiving” like in Luke 15:2 when they criticized Jesus because they said, “This man receives sinners.” It’s the same word! Joseph of Arimathea wasn’t just sitting on his can waiting for the kingdom! No, he was looking for the kingdom, accepting what the kingdom means, receiving what kingdom folks have to go through! He was standing up for what’s right even though people didn’t like him because of it! He was tenderly showing love to Jesus when no one else was looking and even when no one else was around. I want to be like that! I want to wait like he did!

2010-06-03T17:53:00.000-07:00

Something to Sing About

Lately, whenever I write praise songs, I write them with my brothers who are in jail in mind. I think it’s because their issues and struggles are so clear and easy to pin down that the lyrics just flow naturally. All I have to do is just think about Unit 2 at the Anderson County Detention Facility and imagine I’m in there... I think about what I would need to hear, what I would need to sing about and what I would need to hold onto in order to stay encouraged and loving Jesus. I think about what those guys share and what they have to go through and the songs just write themselves! The great thing I’ve learned from doing this is that these so-called ‘jail’ songs work just fine in our worship services at Christ Community with folks who have never been within a mile of the lockup! In fact, these songs (which are often lyrically more direct than other praise songs) have been absolute home runs with our church people and I think it all has to do with the fact that incarcerated or not, we all basically have the same spiritual struggles and needs!

We all need to be reminded all the time that Jesus still loves us and wants us, no matter how bad we’ve been. We all need to sing about the fact that not only is it okay if we can’t make it on our own, it’s actually better that way! We all need to be told daily that we are weak and completely needy. We all need to be singing about the fact that Jesus didn’t just halfway save us from some of our sins, but He set us free completely from all of our wrong, past, present and future! Our newest praise song for the jail is called “I’m Going Home” and it’s all about heaven... man, you should have heard those brothers singing that song in Unit 2! They had never heard it before, but they brought it like it was their job! Not only that, but we sang the song at CCC on sunday morning and they brought it too!

Tom and I were at the jail one day and one of the brothers told me that the previous Friday marked his third year in Unit 2. Whew... I couldn’t handle that information. I mean, it’s a rough place to be for one hour a week. I can’t imagine three years there with a wife and a little girl on the outside. I asked myself, “What would I be desperate to know and sing about if I had just served my third year in this place?” ...and then I remembered the words of Jesus in John 14 where He said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” I remembered the words of Paul in 2 Timothy 4 which say, “In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.”

I would want to sing about heaven! I would be ‘loving His appearing’ and dreaming about that Great Day! Over and over again in the Scriptures, the hope of the Gospel is the hope of heaven: that we have a home that is not of this world - that we have a place we were truly made for where there will be no more pain, sorrow, sin or death ever again - that Jesus Himself is coming back for us to take us to be with Him forever! Oh man, if that’s true, then I can make it through anything! If heaven is real, I can make it through the tough and confusing times, the sad and hopeless times and really whatever kind of times come my way! If this life is short and then at the end, (because I have believed in Jesus) I get to be with Him forever in endless joy and sweet, ceaseless fellowship with everyone who loves Him, well then, I can make it through just about whatever... Now that’s something to sing about!

Isaiah 25 says, “O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago... On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine— the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The LORD has spoken. In that day they will say, "Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the LORD, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation."

2010-05-27T18:48:00.000-07:00

Fruit For You

So, Christy got me this new book all about how the Beatles recorded their innovative and unbelievable albums and one of the things that I’ve learned in reading this book is how cut-throat a producer can be... See, a record producer’s job back then was simply to make hit records. They had one goal, which was commercial success and they would do anything to achieve it. For instance, the classic Beatles song, “Love Me Do” has a different drummer on it! Apparently Ringo couldn’t get the part right, so the legendary producer, George Martin simply hired another drummer! It didn’t matter that Ringo was angry, hurt and humiliated by this. It only mattered that the drums on “Love Me Do” sounded right. And, apparently George Harrison often labored unsuccessfully to get his guitar solo right, like on the song “Taxman” where he struggled in vain to play a passable take for over three hours. Finally, George Martin walked in the studio and said that Paul McCartney was going to play the solo. Harrison started yelling at the producer and finally stormed out of the studio! Fortunately for the album, Paul laid down an unbelievable part on the very first take.

I think there’s a part of me that sometimes wonders if God is like a record producer... what I mean is, I know He’s after a final product. I know He’s interested in yield and sometimes I feel afraid that if I don’t produce, He’s not interested in me because what He wants is a hit, whether or not I’m even on it. I mean, look at John 15 where Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”

Jesus says God is a farmer who wants fruit! He wants that final product, and He’ll do whatever He’s got to do to get it! Look at Ephesians 4 where Paul says, “Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.” He wants us to walk this thing. He wants results... but you know what, I don’t think that’s all He wants.

This week, Jack started to walk on his own. Most kids his age have been walking for a while, but Jack has taken his time to get there. Most likely he’s struggled because of his hearing and balance. He recently had surgery on his ears and the doctor said that he’s pretty sure Jack couldn’t hear a thing, but either way, it’s been a long time coming. I’ve been holding his little fingers and conducting walking practice like crazy for months. I really want him to walk. When I finally saw him walking for the first time by himself, I cried. I was going crazy with excitement and crying. The thing is, if Jack never, ever walked, I’d still love the guy and I’d be glad to carry him everywhere. I want him to walk, but I want him to walk because walking is good for him. It’s better that way. God wants us to walk with Him. He wants us to be fruitful, but not just because He wants a stocked up fruit stand. He wants you to be fruitful, because it’s better for you. You’re better that way. He’s not just some record producer looking for hits at the expense of the band; no, He loves you and wants to see the best you for your own sake. A fruitful you is a better you for you and that’s what He wants.

Oh, and here's a little video I put together for that big moment:

Jack! from James Younger on Vimeo.

2010-05-19T20:59:00.000-07:00

Panic!

Last weekend we had to go to a wedding rehearsal in Loudon Tennessee (about an hour away) and we decided to take the girls with us. I know how to get to Loudon, but didn’t know exactly how to get to the wedding rehearsal location, so we followed some friends who knew the way. Everything was going along wonderfully when all of a sudden a car got in between us and the car we were following. I didn’t think a thing of it, but Anna hit the roof! “Dad! Dad! Drive faster! We can’t even see Ty’s car! Are we going to be lost forever!?” Norah followed this dramatic spiel of Anna’s by simply screaming out, “Dad! Why do you drive so SLOW!?!” I looked in the rear-view mirror to see Anna’s face contorted with pure panic. It was as if she had just realized she had been kidnapped or something. She was breathing loudly and way too fast, and simply couldn’t hear me explain that everything was okay because I was fairly confident that I could make it to the interstate, having driven this road about seventeen thousand times...

I tried to explain to Anna that I could still follow Ty’s car even if another car got in between us, but it was no use. Literally every single time someone else filled in the empty space between our two cars, Anna gasped, winced or in some other way freaked out about my slow driving and the fact that we were destined to wind up stranded and alone, lost in the inhabitable wilderness that is Knox County. The absolutely palpable tension was ridiculous. I simply could not convince Anna that I knew what I was doing and that she could just sit back, relax and enjoy the ride while I steered her faithfully to her destination. I tried to explain the subtle intricacies and etiquette of following another car on the interstate, but it didn’t make any difference. After all, Anna’s only driving experience can be summed up with a purple Barbie jeep powered by a 12 volt battery in my driveway. No matter what I said, it didn’t land. She couldn’t get it.

When I think back on that night, I am reminded of Isaiah 55 which says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

You see, there is absolutely no reason for me to freak out or worry about any of the things that happen in my life. The Bible says over and over again that God is in total and complete control of every single thing that happens in this world! As Dave Roper said, “There is no maverick molecule in this universe.” Paul, in Ephesians 1:11 says, “we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will.” Psalm 115:3 says, “Our God is in heaven, He does whatever pleases Him.” When I call into question the circumstances and struggles of my life, I am basically saying that God doesn’t know what He’s doing and that I would be much better at His job! The truth of the matter is that God, in His genius fashion, is working out everything in my life for my best; and His plans, His thoughts and His ways are so far over my head, so high above my own, that I could never understand why He does the things He does. If He were to explain it all to me, I wouldn’t understand half of it! I don’t need to panic! I need to sit back, relax and let Him drive...

2010-05-13T12:54:00.000-07:00

Fads

Well, they’ve done it again... someone, somewhere has come up with an idea so ridiculously simple and so sickeningly obvious that no one else even saw it coming, and as a result they got the jumpstart on a very specific and short-lived industry that will undoubtedly make millions of dollars. Now, these types of things come and go, but while they’re in, they’re so in and you’re only in if you have them. When I was a kid, the fad was called “Slap Bracelets” which were basically springy little pieces of tin covered in decorative cloth that snapped around a person’s wrist. Wow. There have been Cabbage Patch dolls, Beanie Babies, Crocs Buttons and on and on. The newest fad on the block is called “Silly Bandz” and believe it or not, some genius had the idea of making a rubber band mold shaped like an animal instead of a regular circle. You wear the animal-shaped rubber band around your wrist like a bracelet, and then when you take it off, it goes back to the molded animal shape... So, the manufacturer can basically make any shape and any color. Cha-Ching!

Somebody out there is laughing right now... About a year and a half ago, a guy in Ohio came up with the idea to pour colored silicone into variously shaped molds and started telling folks about it. The word of mouth advertising took a while to fire up, but now there is a website, a facebook group and a twitter feed. As you would expect, there are even tons of copycat companies trying to get in on the frenzy, although the ‘Silly Bandz’ official website warns me not to be “fooled by imitators.” Okay, I’ll bear that in mind. There are even Christian toy makers who have started to manufacture so-called Believer Bands... yep, that’s right, rubber bands shaped like crosses and fish are being touted as a ministry tool so that kids have “a new way to share their faith.” This fad has become so popular that many stores have to limit their customers to just a few packages per purchase and in the hands of the kids, it has become such a fierce social trade industry that many school systems have banned the bands altogether!

I have no doubt that within another year or two, the folks at Silly Bandz will pack up their gecko-shaped molds, disable their flashy website and laugh all the way to the bank as the fad dies away as quickly as it took the world by storm. No self-respecting third grader will be caught dead wearing a funky, purple giraffe around her wrist and our landfills will be packed with the rubbery remains of the money-making menagerie. and that’s how it works... fads come and go. Sometimes, they go quite a bit faster than they came. When you look around these days, you don’t have to search long to find people in another kind of frenzy. Folks are fired up, emotional and possibly inordinately engaged in a kind of fad. I think the Bible would call the fad ‘human arrogance’... and it is expressed in all kinds of popular crazes like money, material possessions, fame, beauty, sports and governments of men. I know, I know, all these things have always been with us for thousands of years, so how could they be called a fad? I would say they are fads because, just as sure as they are empty, they are on the way out and in the grand scheme of things, thousands of years will only be a drop in the bucket.

Isaiah chapter 2 says, “The LORD Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted (and they will be humbled), for all the cedars of Lebanon, tall and lofty, and all the oaks of Bashan, for all the towering mountains and all the high hills, for every lofty tower and every fortified wall, for every trading ship and every stately vessel. The arrogance of man will be brought low and the pride of men humbled; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day, and the idols will totally disappear.”

See, there’s coming a day when all the stuff we get so fired up about will be gone. All our money, trade, power and beauty will be a thing of the past. All our governments with their theories and policies will be overturned and ended. On that Day, only One will be standing. On that Great Day, everything we hoped in apart from Him will be undone. Everything we’ve trusted in to do for us what only God can do will evaporate into smoke and blow away. Only the unshakable will remain and all the fads will fade. I don’t want to give my heart to something that’s temporary, whether it’s a slap bracelet or a four-year administration. I don’t want to pour my energy into a fad. Let’s set our hearts on Him, the Unshakable.

2010-05-07T01:43:00.000-07:00

Where To Fix Your Thoughts

So, last week I did something I’ve never done in my entire life... and really, it’s kind of amazing that I’ve never done this at all during the entire span of my almost 31 years on this planet. I mean, you would think that at some point along the way I would have, but no. The funny thing is that as soon as I did this thing and people found out about it, I unknowingly entered an unofficial little club I never knew existed where people I had known for years all of a sudden decided that they really liked me and wanted to hang out with me... Okay, so what was this mysterious activity which I have somehow managed to escape participating in for three decades? What was this unavoidable cultural phenomenon which I have always (in one way or another) avoided? Well, here goes:

Golf. It was golf.

Last week my mom took me out for my first ever round of golf... Up to this point, I had never actually even held a driver and had no idea what a pitching wedge was! At every point I had to ask which club I should use for my next move and I still have no idea how she formed the answers to those questions... She would say things like, “Hmmm, you’re gonna want a 7 iron for that shot.” And I was sitting there thinking, “What? How in the world do you know that? Are you making this up?” The long and short of it was that I stink at golf. I can’t put, I can’t pitch, I’m utterly hopeless in the sand and although I can sometimes drive a little, I mostly can’t do that either. But, as I was saying, as soon as the news spread around a little that I played a few holes of golf, I started getting all these invites, phone calls and text messages. Folks want to play... they want to coach me... they want to hang out with me... it felt good.

Truth is, if I had known fifteen years ago that there was this game you can play where you instantly have tons of friends and they all want to hang out right now no matter how bad at it you are, I would’ve started stinking at golf a long time ago! I’ve been looking for people’s attention, help and approval my whole life. This magnetic pull towards wanting to be liked, appreciated and invested in has mostly led to the craziest messes of my life and to my darkest places emotionally; and that is because no regular human person could ever fully meet the needs of my intensely needy heart, or yours for that matter. We need oceans more TLC than anyone can give.

That’s why Hebrews 3 is so cool, though. Verse 1 says, “Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess.”

Isn’t that awesome?! I don’t need anyone’s approval because Jesus is the Apostle I confess! Apostle is a word that just means “sent one”. Jesus is the one God sent for me. Why? Because He’s so crazy in love with me that He sent His own son to save me! I have God’s love and approval and He proved it to me by sending the Sent One! Not only that, but I don’t need to depend on any person around me to do stuff for me, because Jesus is the High Priest I confess! Other people may let me down, but Jesus is my priest... He stands in the gap and does for us everything we can’t do for ourselves, presenting us holy before God. We have the help and the approval of God Himself! All we have to do is fix our thoughts on Him! God loves you and He’s right there to help you... think about that!

2010-04-29T11:42:00.000-07:00

Term Limits

One time Anna and Norah ran up and asked me if we were going to go to the park that afternoon. I answered them by saying, “Maybe.” As soon as that word was out of my mouth, Anna grabbed Norah and said, “Come one Norah, let’s go play. When adults say “maybe” they just mean “no” but they’re trying to be nice...”

Ouch! Busted!

What if you had all your hope wrapped up in something that could only ever tell you “no” and let you down? What if you hoped in something or someone who was actually powerless to help you in any way? Well, the long and short of it is that you will be disappointed a lot. As I look back over my life, I can think of so many places, people, companies and things I had my hopes set on that simply didn’t produce... like those cereal box tops I mailed in to get a free He-Man action figure that never showed up or the $140 Air Jordans that were too small for my feet after three or four weeks. Over the years there have been concert tickets I’ve bought for artists who couldn’t or didn’t show up and jeans I’ve bought that have fallen apart in no time. For weeks I’ve been patiently waiting for our tax refund and right now I’m waiting on a drywall guy that was supposed to be here four hours ago! If there’s one thing this world rocks at, it’s letting you down.

There is no person, privilege, ability, group or government that can meet all the convoluted and complicated needs of the human heart and when we start pinning our hopes on anything or anyone in this world, we wind up frustrated, disenchanted, confused and disoriented or even betrayed. When we expect the people in our lives to completely ‘get’ us, we wind up hurt when they don’t. When we expect our leaders to perfectly represent us and our values, we wind up angry when they don’t.

That’s why I was so pumped when I read Psalm 146 this morning... “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God...”

You see, I have real needs that weigh me down and real problems I can’t solve. I have issues a-plenty that I can’t even begin to handle and I desperately need someone who absolutely can handle these things. I need someone I can actually count on who not only completely knows me, but completely knows what to do and has the power to do it! I need Someone without term limits who wasn’t elected by anyone’s wisdom, but simply is the Sovereign Lord. I need God, who reigns over all to help me! The people in your life will eventually let you down. Your government, no matter how much you tailored it to your own preference, can’t save you. When those folks are gone, so is there power and impetus! The only real change that can take place in the life of a person is the change that happens when the Lord of heaven and earth comes in and helps by His Almighty power! That’s the help I need! That’s the One I’m going to call out to!

2010-04-21T08:37:00.000-07:00

Wedding Bands

Every time I go with Tom to the jail, I notice something different that is only true of that particular place. For instance, a few weeks ago I noticed that the Anderson County jail has a very specific smell. We pulled into the parking lot, got out of the car and BAM... there it was: the smell. I had never really noticed it before that one day and even now I can’t really describe it, but it totally exists and is just part of the (I guess you could say) charm of that place. Today when we went I noticed something new... and it was sad.

Tom was going through his message for those guys and asked them, “How many of you brothers are married?” Out of the eighteen guys that showed up that day, four or five of them raised their hands and that’s when I saw it... That’s when I realized that none of those guys had on wedding rings. Their wedding rings had been confiscated at some point between their arrest and their having been placed in the cell block. Now, maybe for you this seems like a no-brainer, and sure, when I give it even a little thought, I realize that they couldn’t let guys keep any jewelry on their person, but it shocked me just the same.

I sat there as Tom talked, just thinking about these guys that I had come to know and care about, and how they had been forced to take off their wedding bands and put them in plastic bags marked with their names. I thought about how I would feel if I had to go there... if I had to go to jail. What if I had to take off my wedding band... the ring my girl gave me all those years ago? What if I had to feel it’s conspicuous absence all day long? The terrible thought expanded in my head... what if I didn’t have my wife? What if I didn’t get to see her smiling face at the end of the day or call her anytime I wanted? I began to miss her like crazy!

Then I remembered the words of Paul in Ephesians 5 when he got himself all wrapped up into thinking and talking about marriage and said this: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.”

You see, marriage is just about the most awesome thing ever and one of the reasons it’s so awesome is that God designed it to be a picture of what He wants with all of us! The way a groom feels about his bride is the way God feels about you! The incredible and almost magical closeness shared by a loving husband and wife is what He wants with you! While I was sitting in the middle of the jail in that Bible Study, I thought to myself, what if I weren’t allowed to worship God with brothers and sisters in Christ? What if someone confiscated my Bible and took away all my praise music and my guitar? What if I weren’t allowed to meet together to pray along with others who love Him? What if someone ripped up my journal and didn’t allow me to talk to people about Jesus? What if someone took away all the outward signs of my relationship with Him? Would I miss Him? Would I long for fellowship and encouragement and hope from the Blessed Scriptures? You know it! Folks, we’re free! Nobody’s taken our ring away yet! We’re free to worship, free to love each other and free to enjoy Him... don’t take it for granted!

2010-04-19T11:26:00.000-07:00

A Christmas Song in April

Here's a song I wrote back during the Christmas season, you can listen to it here or download it for absolutely FREE!

<a href="http://leeyounger.bandcamp.com/track/jesus-song-of-angels-holy">Jesus, Song of Angels Holy by Lee Younger</a>

2010-04-15T12:21:00.000-07:00

One-track Mind

Do you ever wake up in the morning just so thankful for your bed? What about your car and your central heating and air? How about the kitchen that has your own food in it and the bathroom you get to use privately? What about the tons of different clothes you get to choose from everyday that are all yours? When was the last time you just felt so thankful for all these things?

For me, I’ve only started to really notice these kingly luxuries very recently... as in, since November 5, which was the very first day I went with Tom to the Anderson County jail. Now that I’ve been going there pretty regularly, I know its sounds, smells and particular charms. The biggest effect this ministry has had on my daily life has been gratitude. I find myself so much more aware of just how blessed I am to have a comfortable home with my sweet family and to be able to enjoy privacy and possessions. It makes me hope that if I ever had to find myself in the jail I would be able to live it well, but it sure is a bleak place...

Sometimes when I go there, I think about the Apostle Paul and how much time he spent in prison. The thing that really blows me away is that the Anderson County jail is probably like the Ritz Carlton compared to the jails Paul was thrown into! I would do just about anything to keep myself out of those block walls and orange PJ’s, where at least a person will be kept warm and dry, clean and fed; while Paul was beaten and shackled in dark, dank dungeons. On top of all of this, he was happy! Not only was he mistreated, misrepresented, flogged and confined, but he was pumped! Paul spent his jail time singing to his guards, praying for his ‘cellies’ and joyfully preaching to anything with ears! I would have cried, sulked and wrestled with my very faith in God, while Paul worshiped God out loud and managed to write some of the most amazing and inspiring documents the world has ever known!

How in the world was he like this?! What was it that kept him joyfully fired up in the midst of the worst circumstances ever, and how can I get some of that?!?

Well, this week I have been reading the little letter Paul wrote to Titus. It’s short. It barely takes up more than a page in your Bible and you could stop reading this thing and read the whole letter in just a few minutes. One of the things I noticed is that in a pretty short little letter that’s only three chapters long, Paul talks about one thing three times... once at the very beginning, once in the middle and once at the end. So, what was this thing that was so on his mind that it gets a treble mention in such a short work? Heaven.

Verse 2 says, “...a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time...” In chapter 2 He says that the grace of God teaches us to live holy lives in the present age “while we wait for the blessed hope - the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” In chapter 3, near the very end, he says, “...having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs, having the hope of eternal life.”

Paul was able to endure anything with joy and praise and fruitful labor because he had a one-track mind! He simply thought about heaven and the return of Jesus all day long! In a letter that takes only a few minutes to read, he literally can’t stop talking about eternal life! Wow, what if I were like that!? What if the reason we’re not that happy is that we have gone too long without thinking about our ‘blessed hope,’ our eternal life? What if we thought about and talked about heaven all day long? God has made promises to us! Jesus is coming back for us! Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King and when we do, we will live in joy forever and ever! It’s our blessed hope! Think about that!

2010-04-12T12:27:00.000-07:00

Child of Wandering Will

Here's a song I wrote a few years back on the story Jesus told in Luke 15 about a man who had two sons and lost one...

<a href="http://leeyounger.bandcamp.com/track/child-of-wandering-will">Child of Wandering Will by Lee Younger</a>

2010-04-07T14:45:00.000-07:00

More Real Than Real

I have been to a lot of funerals in my life and some of them have been for people I was really close to and really cared about. When you first find out someone you love has died, it takes your breath away and the very rotation of the earth seems to stop. Then you start planning and getting ready for the funeral. You call family, you use quiet voices around the house... it’s somber and delicate. Then you have the funeral and someone talks about the one who has passed, and all the emotion you feel and have felt for that person floods over your heart and out of your eyes. You feel, you hurt, you cry and then you talk... you talk to family and friends, you eat food and eventually you start to tell old stories, and then at some point you realize it’s okay to laugh again.

On a strange and singular Friday, Jesus died. The sun burned out in the middle of the day and in those dark hours, Jesus really stopped breathing and was gone. His friends couldn’t believe it. Joseph laid Him in a tomb and some women helped prepare His body. Everyone went home and slept. Amazingly, almost unimaginably, the sun rose on Saturday, as if somehow, anything in the world could ever be the same again...

Then, on Sunday morning, just as He said He would, He rose.

Luke tells us that in the evening of that Sunday when our Lord rose from the dead, two people were walking the seven mile road from Jerusalem to the village of Emmaus. They were still in the throws of all of the emotion of Jesus’ death along with the confusion of reports that His body was not in the tomb. Apparently some angels showed up and told the women that He had risen from the dead! They didn’t know what to think or what to feel when all of a sudden Jesus showed up. The two on the road didn’t recognize Him, but He walked that seven miles with them and gave them what must have been the greatest Bible Study lesson of all time... the Resurrected Jesus unfolding the Old Testament Scriptures that spoke of Him! Wow. Then, before they knew it, He disappeared from the dinner table like that, POOF! They were so excited, they ran the whole seven miles back to Jerusalem to find the Disciples and tell them that it was all true! He was back! He’s not dead! We saw Him! He told us everything! And then, BAM! Poof! He was back again! Right there, in their presence again!!

When you read these accounts, it’s hard to get a handle on what Jesus risen from the dead was/is really like. I mean, He appears and disappears at will. He eats food, lights fires and touches people. He is unrecognizable, and then totally recognizable... what’s the deal? Some might say He is like some sort of less-than-real ghost, the way He passes through space and matter, but He can’t be a ghost because people touched Him and ate food with Him! He can’t be less-than-real... Somehow, Jesus risen from the dead is more real than reality. He is more real than walls and miles and wavelengths of light. He is wherever He wants to be instantly. He is so much more substantial than our reality that He passes through our matter without even disturbing it!

How can this be?! How can something be more real than real? How can something be more substantial than solid matter? Well, did you know that an eagle can see an image that is three times sharper than anything the human eye can perceive? Whoa! That means that with all our amazing HD TVs, we’re still no where near the clarity and detail that eagles have been enjoying for thousands of years! There is a whole world of crisp, sharp images we have never even dreamed of seeing! There is a level of real that we know nothing about, and Jesus is real like that! He is really risen from the dead! He’s alive and powerful, which means You’re not alone! He’s here, right when you need Him to be! You can call on Him and He will help you! As He Himself told His Disciples, “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Here's an Easter song for the Simon Peter in all us:

<a href="http://leeyounger.bandcamp.com/track/after-all-demo">After All - demo by Lee Younger</a>

Listen here or download for FREE