Journey

06-08-28 How powerful is a journey? That’s what I’m thinkin’ about today. I mean, the disciples were regular guys until they journeyed with Jesus for 3 years. After that, they changed the world. Of course the power in that last sentence isn’t in the journey, but in Jesus.

But still I wonder why Jesus chose to use a journey to teach them? I wonder how things would have been if they had just stayed in one place instead of traveling all over? Would the disciples have gotten the experiences they needed to grow and learn the ways of their rabbi – Jesus?

What if every Christian High School graduate spent 3 years on a journey with a rabbi before going to college? Some people might say that’s what college is, but a rabbi isn’t just a knowledgable teacher. He is a wise spiritual leader. What would that look like? Who could be that rabbi in today’s culture? Are there any rabbis in the world today? What kind of man would I be if I were to follow the rabbi (Jesus) for three years on some kind of journey? Where would He take me? What would He want me to experience? What miracles would I witness? What kind of conversations would I be involved in and with whom?

My Prayer: Lord, I know that my whole life is a journey, but I want to live it following You. Show me how to do that. Give me courage to step out of the boat like Peter (out of my comfort zones) and into the next part of my journey with You. Teach me Lord! Be my rabbi, and I’ll try to be Your “talmidim” (disciple) That means I’ll try to be like You in every way.

Guitars

06-07-21Here are some pics of the guitars I play. Most of you aren’t interested, but I’m gonna tell you anyway. God has provided me with these fine instruments – I could never have afforded them on my own. Someone from the church actually came up to me and handed the $$ for my acoustic when we were going to start a new worship service and said, “I know you’ve had your eye on a guitar and that you can’t afford it, now, go and get it.” It’s amazing to me that when you use your gifts to serve the Lord, He takes care of things for you and even gives you the “desires of your heart.”

The acoustic is a Taylor 510ce and my electric is a Brian Moore custom “iGuitar.” The Taylor has a piezo pickup and a mic mixer (for a more natural sound) in the electronics. The Brian Moore has 3 outputs – a regular magnetic pickup (electric sound), a piezo pickup (acoustic sound), and a 13-pin midi output. (for some really funky sounds) You can also mix the sounds together.

Gone Missing

Sorry – I haven’t posted in a while. It’s been so crazy busy trying to get ready for all our summer stuff. We just got back from Ichthus (which was awesome) and now I’ve gotta make a video for Sunday and then begin preparing tool kits for the mission trip. I’ve gotta leave here in a few minutes to take a shower so I can take the youth to the Marquee center and watch a movie today. Anyway, life is busy and I love hanging with you guys – so you’ll just have to get over the fact that I haven’t posted in a while. I’m hoping to get on here again soon and write something up about a few things I’m learning and also about Ichthus. Later.

Bible Study, Swimming Pools, and Cell Phones

06-06-02Yep – in case you haven’t heard, cell phones don’t work too well in swimming pools. Wednesday, I got thrown into the pool at Bible Study with my cell phone in my pocket. Let’s just say, that if you had looked closely, you might have seen a little steam come off of me. We dried the phone out (along with all the other stuff I had on my wallet) but I couldn’t get it to work again. The next day, I went back to Cingular and everyone in the store had a good laugh at my expense, but I was able to get an upgrade. Now I have the new “razor” phone. Yeah! I can talk to you guys this summer.

Heroes

06-05-04I read something today that was interesting. The article said, “A society’s heroes reveal it’s future.”

I wonder what it means that our society holds people like Britney Spears in high regard??? What kind of future will we have???

Who are your heroes? What does that say about your future?

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Spring Break

Wow – Spring Break has been fun! We’ve been to the Marquee theater, to play laser tag, and the best of all was the picnic at Shy Pond! If you weren’t there, you sure missed out! Anyway, it’s been fun hanging out with you guys!

Today a bunch of old friends came by on their way to the beach. It was tons of fun catching up with them and seeing what God has been doing with them all. It’s such a cool thing to know that God is always at work – all over the place. I get so caught up in my own life that I sometimes forget to look around and notice that life is not about me! It’s about God! When I get caught up in my own stuff, I sometimes remember what a friend of mine (Dustan) once said – "Don’t sweat it! It’s just life!" Most people think that life is a BIG deal, but Dustan’s idea is really probably more true – life is pretty short compared to the eternity that we have before us! I think he’s right alot of the time – It’s ok to stress about "eternal" things, but these "life" things are not worth worrying over.

Anyway, I hope you have a great Spring Break too.

PS – I’m not saying that life isn’t important – just that there are more important things.

Franciscan Benediction

06-03-07Here’s a Franciscan Benediction (from St. Francis) that I think is cool. I found it on a Charlie Hall CD.

“May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart. May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace. May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy. And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.”

Wow – I love it! Cool stuff! Yes God I pray that for all the Christians I know and for me too!

Awesome Quote

What you are is God’s gift to you. What you become is your gift to God.

I’m not sure where this even comes from, but it’s pretty cool stuff huh? God has given us everything – our spiritual gifts, our families, our money, even life itself. What we do with those things is how we can honor Him and give back to Him.

I Wanna Be a Chimp

06-02-22 01I guess Justin’s a cow so I decided to join in on the fun – no – here’s an article I found that really spoke to me about how I treat Miranda – well, how I treat most other people too. I get way too interested in accomplishing my task and don’t pay enough attention to the people I’m with. Jesus always focused on people. Women and even chimps are better at this than I am.  (By the way Baby, I’m sorry for the times I’ve paid too much attention to getting stuff done, when I should have just wanted “to be with you.”)

Here’s the article:


Men, Women, Chimps, and Scientists by Dave Brisbin

Women and their men. I see them all the time. Airport terminals are a good place to watch. The roles, the emotions, the language is universal.

I see a young couple from the moving sidewalk coming toward me hand in hand. One of them has just arrived. I can’t tell which; the small case he carries is non-descript. They talk. She is smiling. Looks up at his eyes, back forward again. Up. Back. So much is said with her eyes. I can only imagine. I watch him. He is talking, but looks forward; she alternately at him and back ahead. What I see in her eyes he hasn’t seen as long as I watch.

 

They pass, and I watch their backs. I see her profile tilted up to his face, but only the back of his head—minding the tiller. I’ve seen this before. Why is it so much easier for women to know where to look? Where to keep their eyes? Moving through their lives with their eyes fastened to the sides, on the eyes of those who travel with them—their men more intent on destination, the negotiation of the journey. And how do women keep that look in their eyes as they search up into the profiles of their men?

 

06-02-22 02Last Wednesday night we got a video of scientists trying to teach human language to apes and dolphins . . . . . a segment stays in my mind. One man, a very famous scientist, spent three years raising an infant chimp and trying to teach him sign language. He named the chimp Nim. Nim did very well. Learned several hundred signs. But funding ran out, the project was disbanded, and Nim went to a zoo or something like it. After reviewing hundreds of video tapes of his sessions with Nim, the scientist concluded that Nim was only imitating his teachers and hadn’t really learned anything. Put a big dent in the chimp-teaching business for awhile.

Several years later the scientist went to see Nim. Hadn’t seen him since funding ran out on the project. In clinical voice over, he wondered if Nim would remember him. The video camera caught Nim walking with a trainer just as he caught sight of the scientist. Immediately chimp screeches filled the TV speaker at the rate of about three per second as Nim threw up his arms and sprinted, as well as chimps can in their loping way, for the scientist who got down on his haunches and braced for impact.

Nim leapt into the scientist’s lap and threw his arms around his neck. Chimp arms being what they are, they almost went around twice. All this time and for as long as the camera held on Nim and the scientist, chimp screeches never stopped or even slowed down, chimp teeth big and bright as the scene cut.

And I kept hearing those screeches, and I laughed and smiled and my eyes stung a little all at the same time because the scientist thought that Nim learned nothing, and Nim thought that the scientist was his father, or brother at least. Because the scientist was looking ahead at where he was going. Nim was looking at him.

I’d rather be a chimp than a scientist.

 

I’d rather be a young woman watching her man’s profile than a young man watching the road.

 


How weird is that? We get so caught up in getting everything done and even a monkey knows the most important thing in life is our relationships. I wonder how many times I’ve broken God’s heart by worrying about “getting things done” when he just wants me to “be with Him?” I wonder how many times I’ve done that to Miranda?

Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays?

05-12-21Why are Christians making such a big deal about the use of “Happy Holidays” as opposed to “Merry Christmas!” I guess I understand the concern about taking Christ out of the season, but is that really possible? To those of us who are Christians, it’s certainly not possible and to the rest of the world, well, how can they celebrate the birth of a Savior they don’t know?

I guess I just feel like if you’re gonna be upset about something, why not worry about the guy you work with who doesn’t know Christ? It seems like a much more worthy concern to me.

This whole thing just seems like something that’s “not worth the fight” to me – I’m not apathetic to the gospel, but rather I am passionate about it, and want the opportunity to communicate Christ to others without more hurdles to jump than are neccessary. These kinds of fights just throw up more walls between people and Christ. It just seems to me that our efforts should be spent serving and sharing Christ with individuals, rather than fighting over words on some billboard. Maybe even the perceptions that the world has of Christians could actually be changed by people truly loving and serving the world???

By the way, if you want to complain about the words in a phrase – Mark O from Youth Specialties says this too – is “Merry Christmas” really the best thing we can wish people during this season? “Merriment” (is that a word?) certainly isn’t at the top of my list. What about wishing them a “Peaceful Christmas” or an “Ever-Aware Christmas?” Wouldn’t it be better if people experienced the “peace that passes understanding” during such a hectic time or if they were somehow able to be “ever aware of Jesus’ presence?”

I dunno – just some random thoughts I’ve been having lately.