Girls have cooteys (or is it cooties?)

Don't take this the wrong way (aside: when a person starts out like that, there's only one way it can be taken and that's the way they don't want you to take it), but when it comes to children, I have banned girls from our house.   Well, that's the way I used to think.  I only wanted sons and for the most part that probably still holds.  You see the problem with girls is that their dad becomes this mushy substance in their hands...  I've talked about this girl thing before in a blog in a post titled Father of the Bride.  And additionally, I've had a little bit of personal experience through our foster children.  We had one three year old that would cry just because she could.  And, I didn't know what to do with that.  And then we've had a five year old that just stared at me (until she needed help at which point we were best friends and then after that she just stared at me).  Again, I didn't know what to do with that.

But alas, I met a girl that made me wish she was my daughter.  She goes by Daisy (Her real name sounded like "Evon-Dee") and she lives in Haiti in an children's home.   She's 10 and like a number of the other children, she was just hanging out checking out the "blancs" (white people) and me as we worked on what was their church/school building until the January 2010 earthquake.  She didn't do anything but try to help like some of the boys had...  and in an instant she stole my heart and made me wish that I had a 10 year old daughter.

That kind of strange power that girls have is ridiculous.  If she didn't have four older siblings that loved her and would probably never let her go, I would look high and low for how to adopt her (with Kimberly's blessing of course).  Of course the only hangup with that is that Haitian adoption is a miserable process from what I've heard.  I think it barely has an edge on getting a camel through eye of a needle.

Much love!

It’s not what you think…

I have trouble being an American sometimes.  I think we can be too self-sufficient and too selfish.  A trip that I made to Haiti at the end of July has made it even harder for me to be comfortable.  I keep thinking about the words of Jesus and looking at my life and going something’s not right here.  One of the scriptures that I’ve looked to recently is the account of a rich young ruler.  Here’s what I see and what I wholeheartedly believe it teaches us.

In Luke 18 (also an account in Matthew and Mark), Jesus encounters a rich guy that wanted to assert himself as deserving of the kingdom of God.  So, he asks Jesus a question about what he needed to do to be saved.  It got down to Jesus telling him to go get rid of all his stuff, give the proceeds to the poor and to follow him (Jesus).   Jesus wanted him to unload all of the deadweight from his life so that he wouldn’t have any trouble being a worthy disciple.

Well, the young man refused to part ways with his stuff.  And as he walked away sad, Jesus turned to his disciples and said, "How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!  For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." And then, those who heard it said, "Then who can be saved?"

So, what’s the confusion about here among the listeners?  Well, you’d have to go back to people like Abraham to see.  Abraham was very wealthy.  His son Isaac was very wealthy.  And his sons were also very wealthy.  And, if you follow the history and even the law of the Jews, it seemed that those who found favor with God had great wealth.  And, now Jesus says it is exceedingly difficult to enter the kingdom of God as a rich man.  Why?

It is because God requires our full allegiance.  If we will trust in him for salvation and not our stuff, then we have to take our eyes off our stuff to truly see what he desires for us.  Jesus makes several comments similar to this.  The whole line of conversations about one guy needing to go bury his father or another wanting to go say goodbye to his family; in all of these Jesus is saying that the kingdom has urgency and if you can’t get on board with the urgency of the kingdom then you’re not worthy of me.

Jesus also says that we must pick up our cross and follow him.  That’s right pick up the very tool that was used to kill Jesus and at least one of his disciples and follow him.  The kingdom of God is counter cultural.  Christ calls us to imitate him in denouncing the ways of this world and trusting him with every aspect of our lives which may mean that we lose our lives; as in we may not be popular with the people that like the world; and as in we may literally lose our lives pursuing what he tells us to pursue.

Jesus said lots of hard stuff.  And, it all makes me ask the question… “Have most “Christians” missed the mark of what it means to follow him, to really really follow him?  

Did something change from the Old Testament to the New?  I think so.  If you look at all the patriarchs and their wealth, they served God with it.  And, one of the primary goals of the Old Testament was to establish a nation and to establish a place where God could be worshipped (i.e. the temple.)  And, now both Christ and his followers are the temple of God.  So, it doesn’t take a lot of money to upkeep a body.  So, we give it away to people who are dying with the hope of saving their lives and saving their souls.

God has called us to himself that we would worship him and then he has commissioned us to go tell others about him that they might worship him.   And sometimes it takes us selling all that we have and giving the proceeds to the poor in order to accomplish that.  The gospel aint ya mama’s prosperity gospel.  

Much love!

Identified with Christ (Make much of him, not yourself)

Lately, I've been reading Paul's letter to the Romans (I'm still in Chapter 1).  I've literally been stuck there for a couple of months and, I don't mean that in a bad way...  I had been wanting to study and memorize parts of Romans for a while now, but since I have been reading it this time through, I keep going back to Paul's introduction in the first six or seven verses.

It's the longest of all of Paul's introductions in his letters to the churches.  And, that is largely because it is to a church that he did not have a part in launching nor had he even visited.  But, he longed to visit and he also appears to want to make Rome a new ministry base for his ministry in the "West".  This eventually happens, but not in a way that you, me or Paul would have drawn it up.  It became his base a few years later as he sat their imprisoned; and there he also eventually died.

But, back to the verses and what I believe they say to me the most...  Paul talks about himself for half a verse and even that is pointed to Jesus and Paul's role as his servant.  As Paul gushes on and on about the gospel and how it was foretold for hundreds and thousands of years by the prophets; and about Jesus and how he's the Son of David and the Son of God; and God's grace towards us via apostleship and the establishment of his kingdom, I lose sight of Paul himself as a man.

As for me; I find my identity in Christ, but if I some days I do find my identity in being a 6 foot 4 inch 240 pound black dude; in being an engineer, in working for the "power company", in being Kimberly's husband, in being Caleb's dad,  in being Jessie's youngest son; in some sort of political allegiance; in a social club; in the house I own; or the car I drive...   You get the picture!  Christ follower, identify with your savior before you identify with anything else.

The gospel is being watered down with the lives we live that are about us, our desires, and our dreams.  Churches have become social clubs and sermons have become about having your best life now and reaching our personal goals.  Instead, we should all pursue what Paul speaks of a little further into Romans Chapter 1...  He was obligated both to Greeks and Barbarians to preach the gospel to them.  Make it your aim to preach the gospel of Jesus' life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension and his return.  That's worth living for... When we make much of him; and less of ourselves, our lives then have the most value, they'll ever have.

Much love!!

I'm Getting Closer

I love this song, Closer by Lara Landon...

It is my hope that I am being sanctified day by day, growing closer to the image of my Lord and Savior...

And, I'll admit before you watch this video, the song is better than the video.  I'm not sure what she was thinking...making a hokey video like this.  :o)




Much love!

delusions of grandeur

A definition of delusions of grandeur is as follows: delusions (common in paranoia) that you are much greater and more powerful and influential than you really are…

I’m willing to admit that I suffer from this.  I think I can dance better than I really can.  I also think that I can sing like one of the three tenors.  I believe that I can accomplish great feats like dunking a basketball.  (That one isn’t too far fetched since I could do it in high school and college.)  I even think that I’d be a great racecar driver as proven by my weaving skills on Highway 280.  But lately I’ve been feeling like I should be a rapper.  And I mean literally, I could just turn into LL Cool J and just start breaking out into song mid-stride.  "Mama said knock you out!!!"

So I’ve always suffered from these delusions.  But, I also suffer from great thoughts of defeat.  I often think that I’m a weakling that has no authority, no power even in my own home and that I should go crawl under a rock somewhere and no one would ever notice.  So, I guess you could say I’m not only paranoid, schizophrenic, and delusional, but I’m also bi-polar.  Anyway, on the delusional note, I’ve been aided along in my delusions by the preaching of God’s word.  Our pastor has been preaching from the book of Acts.  And, this week’s sermon was on Chapters 5-8 of that book.  There we see that the only purpose for our lives as Christians is to move the gospel to the ends of the earth...  to make known that there is only one God worthy of worship.  And, in that purpose God has made us unstoppable.  We as the church will accomplish the purpose of God for our lives or die trying.  And, that’s no delusion my friends!  Come lose your life with me, and together we will find our lives.  That’s the gospel.

Much love!

One Year Ago...

Tonight is January 11, 2011.  Tomorrow will be the one year anniversary of an earthquake near Port-au-Prince, the capital city of Haiti.  The earthquake hit the city and the nation like a ton of bricks.  Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere did not have the infrastructure to withstand the quake.  Thousands died and most structures near the center were either destroyed or severely damaged.  Since that time, there has been very little rebuilding.  Thousands live in tent cities.  They have for months.  As if an earthquake that killed thousands wasn’t enough, in recent months, the country has been ravished by cholera…a disease that could easily be eradicated by clean drinking water and proper hygiene.   My heart aches for the people of Haiti.  I’ve longed to see them and to encourage them, but twice now I’ve thought I would see them and twice the trip has fallen through.  But, I am praying for them.  I read the stories on websites for CNN and Samaritan’s Purse.   I pray for them and I hope to go there soon.

It would be so easy to judge Haiti and say that they deserve what they get.  The country’s government is corrupt.  There is widespread voodoo practiced on the island.  They have mistreated a number of people that have come to their aid.  They have abused and robbed the earth of it’s resources until the country is barren and unable to support itself.  But, when I hear people say things like that, it reminds me of a rebellious and stiff-necked people that refuse the love of God.  Yeah, that’s us.  So, I don’t want to judge because I am them.  Love the Haitians and pray for them.  If you’re able and God burdens you, go to them.

Much love!

(P.S.  Read this article.  It will bless you.)

I am blessed

I’ve been thinking about my blog entries and as I’ve thought about them, it seems like I lament a lot.  So, I wanted to write a more upbeat entry, because if you know me, you know that I enjoy life and I laugh a lot (a whole lot).  In some ways, my thoughts and my personality have intensified over time.  And, that ultimately stems from a heightened desire to please God in my actions and to see the world around me changed for the better.  But, in all that intensity, I’m still a happy, joyful, upbeat person.  So, what I want to proclaim today is that I am blessed beyond all measure and in more ways than can be enumerated.  God has given us more than we need for every situation.  It’s just like his name says of him Jehovah Jireh, he’s all we need, a great provider.  Yes, I am blessed!  I praise God for that because I am truly grateful!  I never want to stop praising him and blessing his name for all he is and all he's done!

Gravy
So, here’s the lament part of this, but it’s really not a lament.  It’s an encouragement or maybe even an admonishment to myself and others.  Recently, I was sitting around the table with a bunch of folks.  And, we were talking about our annual performance incentive and how we performed in 2010.  Well, it turns out that we had the worst year ever as an operating company (by far).  And, in the room that I was in, nobody was complaining because the year ended better than we thought it would.  But, like everything for the few that are happy to just to get something there are many more that complain about the goals that were in place that prevented us from having the highest achievable incentive.  But, as I sat and thought about the whole thing, I said [to myself], “This is gravy!   As a matter of fact, it’s all gravy.  Half the world lives on two dollars a day.  Anything beyond that is gravy. “  In a subsequent conversation, I did share that with someone,  and he said, “My friend if you roll out of bed in the morning, the rest of the day is gravy, forget about making one red cent.  Living life is gravy.”  So, I’m blessed.

Comforts and Luxuries vs. Survival
Now back to this two dollars a day business…  We need a car.  Well, according to middle class American standards, we need a car.  We have two old cars…one that’s twelve years old and one that seven years old.  The twelve year old car runs a little sluggish and it leaks multiple kinds of fluid.  The shocks are shot and it sometimes scrubs the ground.  It creaks and rattles as I roll along.  And, it has 170,000+ miles on the odometer and we take it to the shop and spend several hundred dollars on it at least twice a year.  So, I hope I’ve drummed up sympathy for our plight here.  And, if you know us, you know we Dave Ramsey disciples as far as not adding on debt goes anyway.  So, we’ll pay cash for a gently used car one day.  But, I don’t think that day is today.  Unless the twelve year old dies and few hundred dollars want fix it’s death, we won’t be getting a “newer” car.  And, here’s the reason.  I’ve been reading about Haitians that walk for hours to get their sick family members to a clinic for treatment of cholera.  And, I’ve actually been to Belize with a medical team where people walked for miles and miles just to see American doctors that were treating minor ailments.  If the people in these two countries have cars they are most likely older than the ones we have and leaking a lot more fluid than the ones we have.  So, what I’m saying is middle class America leads us to revel in comforts and luxuries while the rest of the world is just trying to survive.  I for one want to change that.  I want to acknowledge that I am blessed and then use what I have to bless others and help them transform their lives… pulling them back from the brink of both spiritual and physical death.

Conclusion of the matter
I am blessed.  We are all blessed.  Even people in America that make the 10 or 12000 thousand dollars it takes to be at the poverty line are blessed.  We are all waking up in the mornings and we have far surpassed the $2/day mark.  We have access to the best health care in the world.   Almost all of America has clean drinking water which solves most of the world’s disease problems.  Folks, we are blessed.  So, let’s connect our blessings with those in need.  Give your heart, your time, and your financial resources to change the life of another person for the better.

Much love.