IT'S FOR THE KIDS

          

          God broke my pride, and in turn, he broke my heart. Every Thursday, my school allows a group to assemble known as the Bible Club. It's not school run, but instead is led by volunteers from the community, mostly pastors and youth ministers. The children choose to attend, and they sing songs and the guest talks about something related to Jesus.

          The enthusiasm I have at Bible Club has been at higher points in my life. For one, the songs are cheesy and the motions are worse. The kids come back to class and they are jacked up to where it's just not funny. In so few words, I dislike having Bible Club duty. There are times where I second guess many things the guest speaker says, criticizing the way he says things and how he does things.

          Alright, I have a bit of a critical spirit. I tend to lean towards the negative. I think that may be why my name is Paul, so that I can work toward being humble about these things. This Thursday, God hit me with something I hadn't realized before: the Bible Club isn't for me. It's purpose is not to grab my attention, to entertain me, to peak my curiosity for Jesus. In all it's cheesy glory, "It's for the kids." For some reason I hadn't grasped this notion before this point. As I looked from the middle-aged man doing hand motions to the kids around me my perspective immediately shifted. The kids were singing the songs, doing the motions, and generally enjoying themselves. Too often I chalk those things up to unnecessary and "extra" and forget that is how kids get engaged.

          I saw some of the worst kids in the school singing a song about Jesus and happily participating with silly hand motions and really getting into the dancing. Kids need to move. They need to play. And they need to know that faith isn't humdrum and boring. That there are times to dance, there are times to sing, there are times to be silly, goof around, and have a good time. I forget sometimes that kids need to be kids. My son is 2 and I keep wishing that he wasn't speaking in small sentences now, that he wasn't potty training, and that he was still a small baby I could rock and hold. That isn't happening. He is growing faster than I can imagine and I've got to give him the best opportunity to be a kid.

          Jesus spoke on several occasions about children and how much he treasures them, and how much of a treasure they are. I think it could be because at their core, children worship more freely than anyone else. When they love, they love with everything they have. When they are honest, they see past all screens, masks, and makeup to the very core of your soul (haha). They are unbounded by culture, tradition, and social cues until the day where we put our ideas into them, some good, some bad.

          I've got to be less selfish, this isn't about me. Honestly, nothing is about me. It's all about Jesus and I am just blessed if I get to participate. Once I was set right about this, I was able to smile and have joy at seeing those students having a good time. The Grinch-esque attitude had been wiped away and replaced with the simple understanding that Jesus is good, children can have joy and enjoy him, and that's all that need be. Thank God for moments like that.

I WANT A MEAL

          Set the scene: A small New Orleans-esque restaurant dimly lit and featuring specials particular to Creole food. A couple sits in the booth across from one another, staring into each other's eyes, thinking about the present and the future. Fast forward to Giordano's pizza in Chicago. A large group of teenagers and adults passing around thick, cheesy slices of Chicago's finest. Come to a stop at today, well actually tomorrow. Tomorrow night, the small group that meets at my house is having Thanksgiving dinner a little early. We will serve a traditional meal of turkey, with ham and dressing, there will be rolls and probably many sweets. Just talking about it makes me feel hungry. But I'm not hungry for the food...

          Food is good. I enjoy it and we spend a good amount of time eating or preparing to eat. We eat on the run, at the table, on the couch, at our desk, just about anywhere we can grab a bite. But food is not the point where a meal is concerned. When I say I want a meal, I want moments like those in that dimly lit restaurant, or Giordano's in Chicago, or what will be experienced tomorrow night.  A meal is more about relationships than anything else.

          Jesus often times shared a meal with his friends. We see this in several places in Scripture. He sat down with the Disciples, with the Pharisees, with tax collectors, and with prostitutes. It wasn't like the Pharisees had the best wine to serve and the tax collectors had the best meat. Jesus sat down with these people to tear down a wall that divided. A meal shared opens the door for conversation. A meal shared opens the door for new friendships. A meal shared opens the door to fix old relationships.

          Too often I'm on the run. Many times I eat it is in the car and it is McDonald's (which is my son's preference, 4 piece chicken nugget happy meal with no sauce and a chocolate milk). I miss meals, I long for meals in which I can sit down with my wife and son and just enjoy the time we have together. Maybe mealtime isn't important to you. Maybe it should be. Your son or daughter could have something they needed to tell you. Your husband or wife might need to see you besides "Good morning" and "Good night." After this current election, I'm not sure who really should have won, but I know that we need more time as family and friends, around a table, breaking bread together.

CAUGHT UP IN THE WHAT IFS

         

          The other day I was having a conversation with a good friend. Sometimes the topics are light and airy, while other times they are intense and challenging. This one was of the latter. I actually stepped into the conversation by accident; don't you love those situations. Hi, how is everyone? BAM. Theology and reasoning discussion opens up.
          The sticking point this particular time was, there are too many what ifs in Christianity to let go of and "follow" Jesus. The reasoning part of the brain forced them to engage their minds and try to sort/reason things out. The difficulty in that is that sometimes God doesn't line up with our formula of rationale. There are some times that God chose to do things in opposition to the culture. There were many times that God used the inferior people to carry out his plans.
          When I was in college I had this big deal about giants in the Bible. I wanted to know where they came from, where they went, and why some of them had six fingers and toes. Still unclear about that one. If you go to certain rural parts of our country, you might find people with six fingers and toes, but it's most likely akin to running into giants with a similar predicament; you are not going to be happy about the outcome. Anyway, for a while, my sole focus was on figuring out about those Anakim and Nephilim and whatever other names they had. You know what I found out? Squat. Specifically Jack Squat. There were some interesting webpages dedicated to it, but I was pretty sure they were not as reliable as Wikipedia.
          In all of that, I came to a conclusion: Giants were there, somewhere, but they weren't the center of the gospel. I also loved thinking about the Ark and the Plagues and the Creation and the Fall. Many brilliant minds have struggled with these stories for a LONG time. And many great men have died without their answers. Does God delight in keeping us in the dark? No! His main focus is for us to tell all the world about Jesus, not necessarily the six-fingered gargantuan than I'm just a little weirded out by.
          Men and women of great intellect have struggled over many aspects of the faith. There are just some hard things to forget about... And I don't think we should. Far too often Christians accept Jesus, get baptized, and then never struggle again in their lives. HUGE conflict with Scripture. Jesus did say that if you love me, the world will hate you. Jesus is polarizing. So, we should struggle sometimes. We need to mull things over in that great mass inside our heads. It could be healthy to delve into Scripture about something you are unsure of. Don't think you're a heretic because you don't have the answer, or are unsure of the answer.
         Believers have what ifs as well, and if they don't, there is some spiritual sickness somewhere. Having a hunger for the word can mean seeking to having your questions answered. Some may come to the conclusion that it cannot be answered and it becomes one of the many mysteries of God.
         The person I was talking to, and I have respect for them and the journey they have gone through, said that it was okay to be caught up in the what ifs, that's just where I am.
         I then said that many believers are caught up in the what ifs as well. What's neat is that God invites us to walk in faith with him, and to bring our what ifs along for the ride.
          For those of you scared to think about what ifs, don't be. Just know that God is bigger than the what ifs, that his plan extends beyond the what ifs, and it can be fun to walk in faith with the what ifs.

Manly Men Retreats | Stuff Christians Like – Jon Acuff

Manly Men Retreats | Stuff Christians Like – Jon Acuff

THE GREATEST AUTHOR

          Some may read this in interest because of my love of books. Who would I pick? J.K. Rowling, Tolkien, Lewis, Riordan, Collins, H.G. Well, Jules Verne? (but for the record, I can't pin it down just yet) There are countless authors who have created epic stories and characters which will resonate through our culture for many years to come. These stories have shaped generations of wide-eyed children seeking adventure in the midst of their humdrum, ordinary lives. I've always been interested in authors. When I read their work, I think about the process behind how the story came to be. How long did they think about this character's back story? How did they get all of the minute details exactly right?
          The answer I have come up with is this; authors know things about the characters that they themselves do not know, authors know things about the story that no one knows until the very end. It's how mysteries are mysteries; things are only revealed when the time is right.
          As with many of my posts, this one turns to the spiritual. Jesus is called the Author and Perfecter of our faith. This gets me excited because from what I know about authors, there are some weighty implications here. God, who exists in all time, has authored history. He has authored the future, and he has authored the end of the story. That final period that rests on the end of the page. What's wonderful is that God knows my character and my story better than I do. He created me as a unique character among a cast spanning all of human history.
          Your story is unique as well. All of our stories are. They may have similar settings, conflicts, climaxes, and resolutions, but the subtle nuances that many do not notice, God does. Because He put them there. I am not claiming at all that I understand fully how God works in situations and why some things are done the way they are, but I do feel that God is a brilliant author who has penned the greatest stories ever to be written.
          Hey, it may be cheesy, it may even sound silly, but my favorite author is THE author, and I am able to visit the meaningful and intentional stories that he has written daily in the bible.
          Most times, the stories are of mistakes the characters have made, or of instances in which the author gets involved in the story (where else can you find that). Stories aren't always clean; stories are most times messy, it's why we have a part of story called conflict. But it's in those messy times that God does His greatest work.
          I'm a bookworm and will always be one, but that is the story God has penned for me. One of an imperfect person striving to be like a perfect Jesus.

FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS IS EASY

          Some things are just simple; you are hungry so you eat a sandwich, you are sleepy so you take a nap, or you are bored so you check out what's not happening on Facebook. But there are other things that are just not that simple. They seem to really throw a wrench in your routine and you just aren't sure what to do about them. You scratch your head, take a step back, phone a friend, talk to the preacher, but you still aren't really sure what to do. 

          I had an experience similar to this last week. It wasn't a call-your-pastor moment, but I did need guidance. I was working in a ladies house and she wanted me to change some electrical switches out. Easy, right? Well, typically it's not that difficult, for someone who is savvy with electrical work. Painting, sheetrock, plumbing, I can deal with, but electrical has never really been an area I've spent alot of time in. Can I maneuver around the basics? Sure. I accepted the challenge, thinking that this would be one of the easiest parts of the job.

          3 trips to Lowes, 100 trips to the circuit breaker, and alot of Google research later, I finally finished changing out the switches. There was a key lesson I learned while doing this; follow the directions, regardless of how you feel about them.

          When I pulled the old switches out and replaced them with the new switches, the lights didn't respond correctly. I looked up the diagrams for the particular configurations of the switches, and they did not match up to what I was seeing in the boxes. At first, and for a long time, I tried to reconcile the new switches with the old way of wiring. It simply would not work. So, swallowing my pride and alot of my confidence, I followed the diagrams exactly. This flew in the face of reason because the original switches were wired differently. This "new" way was throwing me off. But once I submitted to that plan, all of the switches worked correctly and I received a job well done.

           There are countless debates over the bible right now. Things about Creation, abortion, homosexuality, marriage, divorce, children, elderly, leaders, servants, disciples, reprobates, and the list goes on and on. We sit in churches and classrooms and talk about these things day in and day out, most of the time leaving more confused than when we arrived. 

          If there is one thing that I learned from my electrical experience it was this; no matter how odd the instructions are, and no matter how much they fly in the face of the way things have always been, we are called to live by them. The end result is a follower of Jesus who still may not fully understand everything (which it's okay not to) and stands firm in what he does believe.

          "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path, and I will hide its words in my heart, that I might not sin against God." 

          God is polarizing. No, he doesn't make things magnetic, or decide where Santa Claus lives, but he does cause people to make a choice. He very clearly states what He is about in His word, and that forces people, at some time or another, to make a choice about Him. What is difficult about walking with Jesus is when we are asked to go against our longstanding traditions of pride and self-entitlement to become servants of others. That's much harder than baking your neighbor an apple pie. But it's worth it, oh my, is it worth it. 

          There is simplicity in following Jesus that many find too simple and so we complicate it. Like me trying to reconcile the old wiring with the new, we cannot force our old ways, thoughts, behaviors, and actions to mesh with Jesus. It just doesn't work.

          "And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”

I NO LONGER BELIEVE IN THE MOMENT OF WEAKNESS

          There are times that I will try to adopt a new way of thinking. Typically it is not a spiritual conviction so much as a social inclination for popularity or coolness. For a while I thought I would look great if I just bought v-neck shirts and wore them exclusively. Farther back I thought that only wearing Converse shoes would make me different. Even farther still, I believed that my eclectic taste in literature would set me apart. All these things are live-and-learn situations. No, my book taste doesn't matter, no Converse didn't make me cooler, and no, v-neck shirts do not make me look great.
          But there are also times in which this funny thing happens that people call epiphanies or revelations. While driving to work this morning, I had one of those. In a moment of confession I realized; there is no such thing as a moment of weakness. This phrasing is used extensively to describe when men slip off their wedding bands after having a few drinks, or when a girl says yes when she should say no, or when we indulge in drink and food to the point of being miserable.
          I no longer believe in this phenomena for one main reason: these "moments" are not isolated vignettes in life, but merely the pinnacle, or better yet, the ravine that we ourselves have been climbing into. I firmly believe that the out-of-control lifestyles and the face-first-in-the-mud moments take time to happen. You don't just wake up one day and decide to cheat on your wife. You don't just snap and start shooting people. There is a chain of events in each case that lead up to that "moment". For example. As a man there are many temptations around that deal with my pride. Some of these are sexual, some of them are not. But any of them that are allowed an audience in my mind or heart will begin to chip away at my resolve, little by little, piece by piece until the day when I no longer have a resistance to that and give in.
          The enemy understands that the battleground for our spirit is not going to be quick; otherwise he would voraciously attack until we gave in. 1 peter 5:8 says that he roams, seeking those whom he would devour. We think Satan is dumb; he isn't. One of his tactics is to slowly take away what we call our witness until what is left is a shell of a person who has no strength left to fight and therefore exits the battle.
          We are quick to point at someone and say, "How in the world could they have done such a thing?" when we really have no idea what they have gone through. My perception of others is focused through my lens, my understandings, my backgrounds, my convictions, my quirks and traits. Your lens may have different filters and so might the next guy. Just remember that the "moment of weakness" isn't just one moment, but several events and possibly a lifetime of being slowly worn down to the point of breaking.
          Think about Jesus in the wilderness. Satan didn't quickly attack and leave, he worked on Jesus for 40 days and nights. What resolve Jesus had! What strength he showed! What an example he left for us! What hope he shares with us! If you've fallen as a result of life, or whatever, know there is hope, know there is forgiveness, know there is strength to be found in connection with the Holy Spirit.