Fractured

Ever have "those songs?" You know...the ones that stick in your head for whatever reason and you just can't seem to shake them. Typically the stick occurs because of a catchy tune or a well-crafted lyric. While recalling the tune may start out as fun and cool, it can quickly turn into annoying and downright insanity. Typically I chalk it up as a natural side-effect that comes with being moved by tunes. However, my most recent encounter has grabbed me at a deeper level, and it won't release its grasp.

Over the holidays, I began listening to a dude named Daniel Renstrom. You can check him out at www.danielrenstrom.com. The song that keeps pricking my soul is Broken Cisterns. Yeah, the tune is good, but it is the lyrics that are rich with spiritual depth and purpose. Unlike a lot of today's "Christian music," (I actually don't believe there is a such thing as Christian music, because songs can't have a relationship with Jesus, but that is another entry for another time) this song does not dwell on the happiness of knowing Jesus, or how great life is for those who call themselves Christians. Quite the contrary, Renstrom's words revolve around the theme of brokenness. In a much more poetic way, the song echoes the story of mankind: God is good, he chooses to use us, yet we love ourselves more than him. Because of our stupidity, we are "cracked about the head" and in need of some major fixing! However, what resonates most deeply with me is the understanding that this need for repair is continual.

As someone who has been following Christ for a long time, it is easy to become complacent, and even satisfied, with who I have become as a man, friend, and pastor. It is scary and downright sickening to find myself believing and acting this way because it is in complete contradiction to the clear message of the gospel. Jesus says he only came for those in desperate need (Luke 5:31), and yet I regularly end up thinking the only thing I need is someone to help ME accomplish MY agenda.

As I sit and watch images of Haitians being pulled dead and alive from buildings, along with vehicles and stagggering piles of unidentifiable rubbage, I am brought face-to-face with brokenness. My heart and soul are torn for those people and their outrageous circumstances. They are in extreme need of physical help in ways that are hard to comprehend, even as I view the images right in front of me. And I don't want to miss that. I don't want to miss the reminder that I am called to meet the physical needs of all those created in God's image. But I also don't want to miss the fact that I am just as needy as those who are homeless, orphaned, and injured. My wounds just aren't as obvious to the naked eye. So I am thankful to D-Ren for his consistent (and not so quiet) reminder of the gospel. That I am a man in need of repair, and that repair can only come from the one that made me to be whole in the original plan.

4D

Yep I did it, took the plunge, gave in, folded! After years (yes multiple) of saying no, I finally took my family to Disney. For 5 days we strolled through magical lands, conquered evil forces and brushed shoulders with everyone from Mickey and Minnie to Dumbo and Sparrow. The attention to detail, mind-boggling creativity and unending hospitality were all more than I remembered or could even imagine. However, more than anything it was the people, the guests, not the Disney cast and crew that kept my mind spinning and my jaw dropping. Here are a few takeaways:

Do
- Take your family! It was some of the best family time we have ever had.
- Stay there/Eat There. Totally worth while. No car for a week, no pb&j.
- Take Dramamine. Yeah I almost puked all over Calahan on Star Tours.
- Marketing 101. Help your kids understand they don't have to purchase something just because they enjoyed the "experience."
- Stay Late. Fireworks and Parades are a great cap to the day.

Don't
- Take your parenting cues from those around. Fascinating!
- Drink the water. I know why they charge so much for a Coke.
- Miss all the details. Everything has a meaning!

Dumb
- Grown women standing in line to get autographs from Cinderella and Tinkerbell!!
- A grandma wearing a Minnie Mouse dress(plus 120lbs).
- Ellen's ride in Epcot where she attempts to dominate Jeopardy, educate everyone on the environment and promote the Big Bang all wrapped up in a painfully boring 30 minute presentation. She should stick to day time television!
- Names of fireworks shows: Fantasmic, Spectromagic and my favorite Illuminations: Reflections of Earth. Please! Can't we just say stick around for some sick nasty fireworks.

Dank
- Toy Story Mania. This is the coolest ride ever! If you go to Orlando you have to go to Hollywood Studios just for this ride. It is 4D! You wear 3D glass, ride in a moving mobile and fire at moving targets. Oh and the best part....you keep score!!! Get there early, do it as often as you can. Be prepared to wait. I am not alone in my opinions.
- Character Meals. By lunch time of the first day I knew we had hit home run with our kids because of their reactions to Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet and Pooh.
- Harper's sparkle, Kelly's tears and Calahan's energy.

After giving my time and energy to the world of Disney for a week, I still have just as many reservations and unfortunately am even more cynical about some of what I saw. However, I never would have imagined the joy it brought to my family. And even more than that, the amount of time we were able to spend together provided experiences and memories that will last much longer than the thrills of Cinderella and Tinkerbell.

Take it Like a Man; or Woman

“Cool”, “Dank”, “That is boss”, “You got murked.” Sound familiar? These are just a few of the “hip” phrases that are common jargon for the current generation of high school students. However, after this past weekend, some of them have developed a more robust vocabulary.

For 3 days nearly 100 high school students from Grace Pelham and Powdersville dialogued, discussed and even debated what it means to be created in the image of God; to be created male and female. Today’s teens just aren’t being asked to “be open” to alternative ideas such as gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender, but additionally are being told that gender is self-defined, that no outside force, culture or deity can determine who you are or who you should be.

So in an attempt to bring clarity and direction in a world of chaos, we spent our weekend studying what it means to live out manhood and womanhood biblically as a high school student. Here are a few of the takeaways:

1 – Gender is a worship issue. Gen 1:26-27 says that “in god’s image we were created male and female.” As Christians, if we are going to adequately reflect the image of God, we must live out our gender the way God intended. As much as singing songs, journaling, reading the Scriptures and living in community, fulfilling our gender as male and female is a way we worship God.

2 – Gender is broken. (Genesis 3) All of creation is affected by sin and the fall of man. Because of this men and women no longer naturally reflect the image of God through their gender.
• Man’s core struggle is passivity which gets played out in areas such as school, friends, family and how we relate to the opposite sex.
• Women’s core gender struggle is independence and it can be evidenced in the lives of high school girls’ interaction with friends, families and relating to the opposite sex.

3- Gender can be redeemed. (Rev. 21:1-5) Due to the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, “all things, (including gender) are being made new.”
• Men are called to pursue, protect and provide.
Pursue = lead, take initiative
Provide = take care of your responsibilities
Protect = defend the weak and needy, hold your peers accountable
• Women are called to affirm, respond and nurture.
Affirm = to come alongside and fill in what is lacking
Respond = to react for the benefit of others
Nurture = to provide life for those around you

4. We are agents of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:18-21). As Christians, we are part of God’s game plan to reconcile the world to Himself. He has given each of us, including teens, a role to play. We believe that one of those roles is to be the men and women that God intended for us to be and to show the world how great our God is.

On the heels of this retreat we are praying that God will give our high school students a vision and a trajectory to go out and lead their peers, families and culture in the area of gender. Realizing that the way they embody masculinity and femininity today, has immediate impact and eternal consequences.

Now that is dank!

For further study in biblical gender for singles and young adults, you may want to read Doing Things Right in Matters of the Heart by John Ensor.

Twelve Feet of Black Top

Most mornings as I leave for work, I find myself struggling to get out of my neighborhood. Work and school traffic zooming in both directions, three nearby neighborhoods producing hundreds of morning rush-hour vehicles, and no left turn lane all contribute to a challenging (ok, maybe frustrating is more accurate) jump-start to my suburbia commute.

Recently, I have been noticing the cars that exit the neighborhood directly across the steet from mine. The only thing that separates us is asphalt and a double-yellow line. But as close as our neighborhoods are in proximity, there is a large chasm that is obvious to all who drive by. In the neighborhood across the street, property owners are leaving luxury homes that are worth more than four times the value of ours. The detailed landscaping of their yards makes me wonder if their lawn-care budget exceeds our monthly grocery allowance! And as they sit in line waiting their turn, they do so in high-end detailed SUV's, while the commuters from my subdivision cruise up in their factory-produced, fuel-efficient vehicles.

As different as my life may be from these high-income homeowners across the street, in these moments we are the same. Money, fame, luxury, comfort, and even opportunity can't get you onto Hudson Road any quicker. We are all at the mercy of a break in traffic to allow us access to the hustle and bustle that characterizes our morning commute.

Waiting and watching this process unfold each morning has caused me to reflect on how this is an exercise in the gospel. Working through the book of Colossians with our high school students has given me reason to meditate on the specific implications of the gospel. What I have been reminded of so clearly these past weeks is that the gospel is simplistically profound. Writing to a group of Christians who seem to "get it," Paul spends the majority of his time clarifying for them the importance of the gospel, reminding them that they no longer belong to this world, and that Satan has no control over them. He pleads with them to not be restrained by the cumbersome rules of religion. Over and over again he points to Jesus as the only true distinction that matters. Origin, ethnicity, family heritage, social status, and even religious traditions do nothing to help one enter the kingdom of God.

So as my neighbors and I "patiently" await our turn each morning to exit our neighborhoods, I want to be continually thankful (1 Thess 5:18) that in God's kingdom, nothing I am/do/have really matters. And just maybe I will even become thankful for my "patient" wait which allows me to ponder such things!

So She Says

Ever see the show, Kids Say The Darndest Things? Well if not, you are missing out because the show is hilarious. Scene after scene kids say anything and everything that is on their minds. I can remember watching it during the late 90's thinking..."Do kids really say such things off the top of their heads? Surely some, if not all of this, is scripted." As funny as the TV show was then, I could never have imagined how funny it would be to actually hear my own kids say such things. Our five year old daughter, Harper, happens to be at a stage which has us eagerly anticipating the next comical thing to come out of her mouth. Here are just a few of the most recent:

- "Do I have to spend this quarter daddy? It has the state of Mickasota on it."
- "When I grow up, I want to be a petanarian so I can take care of animals."
- "Lots of boys in Calahan's class have mohog haircuts."
- "I don't need to noose the bathroom."
- "Today at church I learned about Noah and the whale."
- "Miss Sarah, do you have smoke detectors at your house? You have to go outside if they go off."
- "Soccer cleats have sparks on the bottom of them."
- "I learn everything good from Curious George."

So if you need some free entertainment and you can't find any reruns of Kids Say The Darndest Things, feel free to drop by and spend a few minutes in dialogue with Harper. You will be sure to get your fill of laughs, and you may even learn something new, especially if Curious George is on.

A Tough Pill To Swallow

This morning my life changed forever. I took my first statin (cholesterol-lowering drug). At the age of only thirty-four, I consider myself to be healthy and in good shape. I exercise regularly (ok, compulsively!) and I eat a low-fat diet. And it was only two months ago that my doctor told me that I am as healthy as any thirty-something he knows. And so, you can imagine the shock when yesterday, that same doctor told me that I needed to go on cholesterol medication, most likely for the rest of my life. I sat glossy-eyed and tried to focus, thinking to myself, "Are you serious??? How can this be???"

There is a phrase that a golfer often uses when faced with a situation where he has the option to pull off the heroic shot (with high risk and high difficulty) or choose the easier shot (with low risk and low difficulty). Now adrenaline, testosterone, and a competitive nature will entice the golfer to go for the hard shot and make the birdie; but reason, logic, and percentages beg him to compromise with an easier shot for the chance to make a par. Choosing the latter is referred to as "taking your medicine." Although it doesn't feel good, it is almost always the best thing to do. I have used that phrase time and time again for myself and others while on the golf course, while never fully understanding its deeper meaning!

My pride, my stubbornness, and my competitive nature all conspire to convince me that if I just exercise more, cut down on my red meat consumption, and drown myself with grapefruit juice, I can beat my life threatening enemy, cholesterol! But in reality, that just isn't true. So this morning, tomorrow morning, and (hopefully) for thousands more, I will be "taking my medicine" and reminding myself that par is not a bad score.

Starting Fresh!

Routine, Routine, Routine! I need it, want it, and love it. It's surprizing to me that each May I get so excited about school letting out. I love the summer...sunshine, vacation, mission trips, students hanging out at the church, swimming pools, interns, long summer nights, catching up on reading, and of course, mastering my golden tan (as tan as a Scotch-Irish white boy can get). However, as much as I love the flexability that summertime brings, as we move closer to autumn, part of me ends up longing for the structure from which I wanted a break just a few months earlier.

So when August rolled around this year, I think I was as "pumped" about the school year start as my daughter Harper, who was beginning kindergarten. The first day of school was on a Wednesday. So on Tuesday morning, Harper came out of her room dressed in her "first day of school outfit," with her backpack strapped on her shoulders, proclaiming to everyone, "I am ready for school!" Her eagerness and readiness to launch into a world that will become her norm well into adulthood caused my wife and I to laugh, as we thought cynically to ourselves, "If only she knew...." But part of my thinking is right there with my daughter. I, too, am ready for schedules, routines, planning, discipline, expectations, and yes, even deadlines! I find that I am at my best in those moments. So here we go!! But check back in late April, because I am sure I will once again be begging for some summertime relief.... but this time I may have a six year old little girl pleading just as hard!