Sometimes God kind of ticks me off...

So I'm driving my son to school this morning and I have this amazing idea. Hey why don't we pray together for your day? He says OK. I pray for a few things. I ask him if there's anything he wants me to pray for. He says that he would remember that we love him. Mostly I'm praying that God helps him have a good day and gives him peace and helps him adjust a little better than he has been.

Then we get to the drop off point, and he totally melts down. Won't get out of the car. It was our worst drop off yet.

I hate it when that happens. When you pray for something and not only does it not happen, but it's almost like the exact opposite happens. It's the ANTI-answer. It's not just that God doesn't respond. It's that you end up with something about as far as possible from what you asked for. The Anti-Answer.

You pray for a good night's sleep and you lay awake all night. You pray for patience with your kids and you end up yelling at them all day long. You pray to win the lottery and a big fat tax bill shows up in the mail. (Ok, I don't actually pray to win the lottery.)

So after I drop him off, I'm driving to work and am just in a really bad mood.
And I have this really odd thought. I guess the Anti-Answer at least shows that God is there. I don't think it's just God's sick sense of humor to give that kind of answer. It probably has alot more to do with the fact that God is trying to remind me that prayer needs to be about alot more than just "God give me..."

The Anti-answer sucks but at least its an answer.

Inked For Jesus

I've become a regular reader of Stuff Christians Like (a very cool blog for Christians who are willing to laugh at the dumb stuff Christians sometimes do).

They recently held a contest for "christian tattoos."

This is awesome to me for alot of reasons:
1. I've always wanted a tattoo but always been a big chicken.
2. You have to admire someone who believes something strongly enough to put it on their skin permanently.
3. Those little moisten and press tattoos always start to fade when you take a bath.
4. Most church goers would probably be shocked to see how many other church goers have little tattoos on parts of their bodies that they don't tend to let other church goers see.

But probably most significantly because of a friend of mine that God used to shatter some of my old boxes, paradigms, and prejudices. The first time I met this guy, let's call him KJ (wink, wink), I was working for YouthWorks and I had about 40 college students that I supervised as they led high school youth on summer mission trips. The very first thing I noticed about KJ was that his forearms and calves were pretty much completely covered with tattoos. Then I looked up and realized that KJ had at least a dozen piercings...just on his face. To be perfectly honest, my immediate gut reaction was, "Clearly this guy was a phone interview hire."

Long story short, KJ turned out to be one of the most insightful, compassionate, full of integrity, faithful and committed Christ followers I've ever met in my entire life. I learned so much from KJ. I still do. He is an amazing youth pastor and God is using him in deep ways. The guy flat out rocks my face off.

But what I love about KJ's tattoos is that they are all very intentional. They say something and that something is purposeful.

I think of that and then I ask, what am I doing on purpose to say something to the world in which I live? What am I doing that purposefully says something about what I think, what I am, what I believe?

If I'm honest, I'm usually more concerned with trying to hide the fact that I work for Jesus because I want people to get to know me before they write me off.

My friend KJ is quite content to just be who he is. And that impresses me.

Maybe one day, my own personal evolution will take me to the point of being willing to be purposeful about letting people know who I am and what I am about.

Ear hair

Makes it hard for me to pretend I'm not getting older.

Top 10 ways to make talking bad sound good

So, it turns out this list sort of struck a chord with folks on Sunday. Probably because of how impressive I came off in Jaron's descriptions! In case you missed it, here is our list of ways that we try to convince ourselves that it's OK to talk bad about other people.

10. Blame Someone Else. “I can’t believe this is true, but Mark Allender told me that Scott left his zipper open this morning.”

9. Blame Everyone Else. “I’m not saying I agree, but I’ve had like a whole bunch of people tell me that Scott is lactose intolerant.”

8. Self Deprecation: “Maybe it’s just me, I mean maybe I’m crazy, but have you noticed how much Scott talks about people outside the church? I’m pretty sure he wants to close the church completely.”

7. Righteous Indignation: “Somebody ought to do something. I mean, seriously, somebody really needs to say something to him about the way he whoops when he walks up on stage.”

6. The “bless his heart”: “ Bless his heart… he’s just so young he doesn’t know any better. Surely one of those older, wiser pastors can explain to him why we have to take up the offering every week.”

5. The Denial: “I don’t mean to gossip, but did you hear the rumor about Scott? They say he’s gained 15 pounds this year. Split 3 pair of pants right up the back side. Can you say Jenny Craig?”

4. Closely related to the Denial, it’s the “I’m just saying”: “I’m not judging him. I’m just saying, when you drink Chai Lattes with Caramel every day, you belt size is gonna grow faster than your age.”

3. The Confidential: “Listen, just between you and me, I think Scott has more relatives reading his blog than people in our church.”

2. The Backhand: “I guess it’s great what Scott is doing with the offering, you know, if you don’t care about having a church for our children to go to.”

1. The Prayer Request: “Friend, we really need to pray for Scott. I heard that he is addicted to Chai Lattes and he misses work just about every other week. Yeah right, Hawaii. If we don’t get as many people praying for him as possible, he might just fall off the gas wagon and become a full fledged hyper-miler.”



What other ways have you heard folks try to hide the fact that they just needed to spread a little gossip?


It's always a good idea to laugh at yourself (or believe me, others will do it for you!) Sometimes laughing at ourselves helps us to be able to deal with the ugly stuff we are laughing at. And gossip is pretty dern ugly. Negative and critical speech can be such a destructive force in churches. It is so hurtful because it is completely and utterly different from the way of Jesus. We are children of the light and we are called to walk in the light. In the light, everything is clear. There is no deceipt. There is nothing hidden. In the light we are honest and we are stripped of our masks and we are who we are. And in that light we find genuine acceptance and pure love.

Gossip is the opposite of walking in the light. Backroom complaining is the opposite of walking in the light. Slandering someone's reputation is the opposite of walking in the light. Sitting in a small group and badmouthing other people is the opposite of walking in the light. Getting together with others to complain about someone (when you haven't sat down with that someone to try to work through your differences) is the OPPOSITE of walking in the light.

I can't get over this quote from the book of James. "If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not control his tongue...this man's religion is WORTHLESS."

Good Lord, let's not prove ourselves worthless.

Sticking out like a broken ankle

I started out by typing sore thumb in the title. But I've never actually seen a sore thumb that stuck out. But I have seen a broken ankle (mine) and it did really stick out (like sideways). So I went with that.

If you are anything like me (and I know I am), then you'd admit that "sticking out like a broken ankle" is how you might feel about the idea of sharing your faith with someone. We try to live well, we hope they notice, and every once in a while, we get the chance to actually talk about WHY we live the way we do. Then the tongue just sort of gets stuck in our throat.

So I was thinking about that this weekend as I was reading my new favorite blog:
Stuff Christians Like. And I was inspired.

There is a great model for how we think about sharing our faith. And its found in an unusual place: The story of the Prodigal Son. It's an amazing story about grace, forgiveness, embrace, limitless love. And though I hadn't seen it before: evangelism. Here's what I read:

Remember when the son comes home? The dad basically throws a big party. But the father doesn't invite the older brother to the party at first when the prodigal comes home. Have you ever noticed that? He doesn't come right out and say, "Go get the older brother, it's party time."

Why doesn't he? If the party is the ultimate expression of grace and forgiveness and love, why doesn't the God character in the story invite him there? Better yet, why doesn't he just force him?

The answer is a little further down the page in Luke 15:

"Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. Your brother has come,' he replied, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.' "The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him.

Did you see that? Not only wasn't the brother invited, he didn't even know it was going on. But when he heard music and dancing he asked a question. He asked a question because both those activities were out of context. They should not have been happening, they made not sense. And when he asked a question, the father came running out and begged him to come inside.

I like that picture of evangelism. I don't have to force the people in my life to come to my God party. I just have to dance and live in such a way that they ask questions. And when they do, I will trust that God can answer them. All too often we do it the other way around. We tell people we have a party they would love instead of showing them. And there is a world of difference between those two ideas.

Here’s what I'm thinking: God can use all different, pathetic, half hearted, and poorly thought out means of us sharing our faith to draw people to himself. But I am increasingly sure that the very best thing we can do is “dance and sing” in such a way that people ask questions. If we don’t stick out (like a broken ankle), chances are slim that they will even know we are here. Let's live in a such a way that they want to know what's going on. Let's serve in such a way that they want to know how to get involved. Lets love in such a way that they want to know how to be find that kind of love. When they see us doing something that doesn't make sense, they'll ask questions. And then we'll answer there questions by telling them about Jesus.

So what do you think about “sticking out?”

My Awesome Gas Mileage (update)

Well, not as good as I'd hoped, but I'm still learning the techniques. Scroll down a bit to read about my new found hobby - "Hypermiling."

On my first tank of gas in the Civic as a "hypermiler", I got a little over 35 miles a gallon. That's right about what it's rated at for highway miles, but most of those miles were on city streets. I estimate that I raised my gas mileage by about 5 miles a gallon on that first tank. Not too bad.

Now, I'm shooting for 40 MPG.

Be warned, this is addictive. Melissa laughs at me as I put it in neutral to coast down every hill and up to every stop sign. It's become this obsessive game to see how many miles I can squeeze out of every tank.

living it up with the Kauai celebs

Had a wonderful dinner at Postcards restaurant in Hanalei. Seated at the table behind us was Craig T Nelson. You youngsters probably know him as the voice of Mr. Incredible but to me, he will always be "Coach".

He was very friendly and we chatted briefly. He recognized my accent as southern though sadly guessed Texas.

Thought you might enjoy a candid photo of our evening together (courtesy Marcus Stenzel).

Do you HYPERMILE???

OK, have you ever even heard of hyper-miling?
I stumbled on an article about this not long ago and I'm absolutely hooked.

The basic idea is this: by using some specific driving methods, you can add significantly to the gas mileage your car gets. And as gas hovers well over $4 a gallon, I'll take every extra mile I can find.

There are literally dozens of little things you can do to increase your mileage. Some of them I don't even understand yet. But even if you drive a gas guzzling SUV, you can still significantly increase your MPG.

If you want to read more, click on this: what is hypermiling?
Be sure to click on the link inside that introductory article.

So here's our progress: I'm on my first tank of gas since I started trying this. I've driven over 200 miles and I still have over a half a tank of gas left. Once I refill, I'll be able to tell you what my actual MPG was over that time. But I'm thinking its definitely going to be higher than normal.

BUT HERE'S THE AMAZING THING: Hypermiling has made me a better person!!!!

I'm not kidding.

Now, the drive to work has become very calm and restful. I'm just taking my time. I'm infinitely more relaxed. I'm not getting mad at other cars that are going slow. I'm in a better mood when I get to work (and when I get back home). I’m just happier. And it’s addictive. I’m constantly trying to figure out how to get a little bit better at getting more miles out of my car.

You guys had no idea what you were getting into when you hired someone from California, did you?

Stories of being non-missional

Melissa and I have some friends who are missionaries in South Africa. We had lunch with them today and they told us a story of some of their experiences at one of the churches (in America) they served previously.

A homeless man had been living out of his van and had been parking his van in or around the church parking lot for a few days. One day, the man comes into the church while some folks are there. He goes over to the kitchen with a piece of bread and simply asks if he can use their toaster. He just happens to ask the woman who is the Hospitality Director. Oh the irony. So this woman tells him no he cannot use the toaster. She then unplugs the toaster (which had been sitting on the counter in full view), puts in the cabinet, and locks the cabinet.

Shortly after that, the youth group at this same church begins to collect canned goods for their annual Souper Bowl of Caring. The youth group would keep bags set up around the church and folks would just drop in their canned good donations. Someone happened to notice that the same homeless fellow mentioned earlier happened to wander by and reach into one of the bags and grab a can of green beans. The next day, the bags were all moved and placed in locked closets. When my friend asked why, he was told that they couldn't leave those out. The food was being collected for homeless people.

Now I certainly don't offer this story as an indictment of that particular church. Though I am proud of my friend who did tell them what he thought in a sermon the following Sunday.

I offer this story to encourage all of us to consider a pretty simple point. It's great to go out and do good things. But I think Jesus is pretty clear about WHY we go out and do good things. If it isn't coming out of a heart that truly loves, then it's pretty much useless. Empty gestures, really. Read the book of Amos for more on that.

But if our heart is truly filled with compassion, if our heart breaks for the outcast, the widow, the orphan, the poor, etc, then we won't be able to help but respond when the need knocks on our own door.

May your heart be filled with the love of Christ for all people.

A reminder

You can find mp3's of most of our sermons at bottom right of this page. If you click on the sermon title, a player will open and automatically start playing after a moment or so.