A Little Bit of Cheer

I feel like we are always being bombarded with negative news. Awful statistics. Violent tragedies. Depressing outlook for this new generation. But I don't think that is the whole picture. I wanted to take just a moment to share with you some of the really encouraging things I've seen this week:

*dozens of teenagers donating their time after school to help clean up the elderly
living apartments on Mill Street. These young men and women have worked hard and
been faithful even when the temperatures dropped on Wednesday. They also took the
time to talk to and help some of the residents.

*Our youth ministry getting excited about giving to the needy world-wide this
Christmas. In just two weeks, our teenagers have already given $200 towards the
needs of children in foreign countries.

*A large team of adults who have been willing to give their time and money to
making these projects with our teens successful. As I have not been able to be at
the apartments after school, it has been so amazing for me to have these committed
adults helping out.

*A young man telling me in a lengthy conversation how he is seeking truth and
answers and attempting to make his faith his own.

*A young lady trying to follow God's direction for her life amid many struggles.

This list could go on. Sometimes, with all the negative press we read and hear, we wonder about this generation and where our world is going. But I believe if we open our eyes, we will see how God is raising up those in this generation who love Him and are going to make a difference in this world. Will you rejoice in these encouragements with me by continuing to pray for God to change the hearts and lives of us all!

A Call to Knees

So I think God is trying to tell me something.

In last week's blog, I'd mentioned how I couldn't get that statement out of my head about needing more prayer and less activity on my life. That has continued this week along with situation after situation that is pointing me to prayer.

My daily Bible reading has been from the book of Revelation. Let me give you some snippets of what has jumped off the page at me.

Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who live for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being." (Rev 4:9-11)

Then I heard every creature in heaven and earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!" The four living creatures said, "Amen," and the elders fell down and worshipped. (Rev 5:13-14)

All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshipped God (Rev 7:11)

Do you get the idea?

Every time you turn around these people are falling on their face praying and worshipping. And like I shared last night - since I'm white & nerdy, I looked up what that word "worship" meant in the original language. It means "to fall down, prostrate oneself, adore on one's knees."

You add to all of this the fact that several situations happened this week that I had no good answer to other than to just pray, and I'm pretty sure that God is calling me to pray. So I'm going to.

One of the interesting things I've been reading in a book about prayer is how transformational it can be for us to pray in the places where people who need him are. So I'm starting to spend some time praying in my school bus. I'm going to try to come early and pray at church for church. I'm going to spend some times praying for altar call time at the altars.

I don't know what this all means, but I feel that it is time to stop praying to receive stuff and answers and start just sitting at God's feet waiting for Him to guide and direct. I feel that God is trying to affect a change in me, and part of that means the period of constant activity with little or no prayer is over.

Will you pray with me?

Beard or No Beard - That is the Question!

This is seriously my new favorite YouTube video! I cannot get this song out of my head.



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Frizzle Fry

So I'm sitting here with smoke almost literally rolling out of my ears.

I just got done looking through my 254 new emails. Many were spam but many were important information: updates on accounts I have, ministry training, lesson ideas, articles about social justice, updates on youth ministry events. I cannot believe the amount of information that comes into my life each day. Why is it necessary for me to have so many emails?

I'm reading like six books right now other than Bible study. I read numerous magazine & journal articles about faith and culture and generational studies. I try to stay current with world news. I meet new people almost everyday and try to remember their names. And sometimes it can all be a little overwhelming.

So in one of those six books I'm reading, I came to this line this week: Then I began to think about my life, my journey. I knew that God had been affecting a change in my life - the era of constant activity with no prayer was over.

Did you hear that?

No I guess you didn't. You probably read it.

Let me say the shocking part again: the era of constant activity with no prayer was over.

That is not a statement we hear very often in our society. Usually everything we see or are taught points us to greater activity rather than less. But that's, of course, if you see prayer as inactivity.

We live in this world of craziness and I'm the number one subscriber. But these words, they are haunting me this week. Maybe I'm not supposed to keep up with all of this activity - all of this information. Maybe I'm supposed to build margin into my life. Maybe I'm supposed to slow down. Maybe I'm supposed to give God some room to work in my life. Maybe I'm supposed to pray, trusting that God is going to take care of things.

But the real question I have is, how do we do that? How do we stop doing so much stuff? What are the things that are going to have to change in my life? What will I have to give up? What sacrifices will I have to make to move to more prayer and less activity?

Let me know how you are building margin and space into your life this week.

Shameless Plug

Ok, so I really don't want to use this blog space for announcements and stuff, but I am getting really pumped for the Youth Conference we are going to on November 16th & 17th. I've been looking online at info on the group that will be leading the conference - OneTimeBlind - and it has been like getting reacquainted with old friends. OneTimeBlind is this incredible drama group who used to perform at all of the CIY conferences until about four years ago...and then they dropped off the face of the planet. But now they are touring around, doing different conferences, and they are leading the Youth Conference at Windermere!!! How exciting!!!

Here's one of their skits.



So, anyway, the conference is going to be amazing. I really love how OneTimeBlind communicates truth in such a conversational, real-life sort of way. I mean, I think that is really what we are all looking for - a way we can understand how Jesus and God and the Bible really relates to my life. I was talking to a student last night after service and he was saying how he has went to other churches and they just feel "preachy", like they are talking some foreign language.

I was listening to a podcast from Rob Bell, pastor at Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, MI, this morning. He was talking about how truth isn't so much about the words as it is about the actions that the words produce. He was saying that what we believe isn't found so much in our written-down-hung-on-the-wall-in-Grandma's-needlepoint statements of belief, but in what our lives really look like. That really challenges me. So often I am so worried about making sure I say just the right thing in just the right way. When I'm preparing a message, I often feel like I need to make sure I put certain words and phrases in there. But does my life reflect those words and phrases? What truths and beliefs does my life speak about?

I really pray that you get to come to the Fall Conference with us. I also really pray that all of us who go are brought to a place - a crisis of belief - where we have to apply truth to our lives. God Bless -m.e.

A Child of the 80s Comes Full Circle

I know it may be hard for you to believe by my apparant hip cultured up-to-dateness, but I am really a nerd from the 80s. That's right. I wore parachute pants and Batman Underoos. I listened to Def Leppard and Cyndi Lauper. I identified with The Breakfast Club and wished I were Ferris Bueller. I played with Transformers before Shia LeBeouf was born. And, yes, I cried when I saw E.T.

What is really interesting to me, though, is how trends seem to come full circle. All of the old toys from my childhood are suddenly popular again. They are making movies and TV shows based on my childhood heroes. It is really strange to see things cycle. So, as I was surfing the 'Net the other day, I was particularly intrigued to find this video.



How amazing the similarities between a favorite movie of mine from the 80's - The Goonies - and the current pop icon - The Pirates of the Caribbean! Why is that? Creative Theft? Coincidence? Greed overcoming art?

I believe it is deeper than that. I believe all things cycle. Whether its art and fashion or economy and careers or faith and spirituality. As a Youth Pastor and a follower of Christ, it is interesting to me particulary to see how the cycles of revival work. It seems like every couple hundred years, the world becomes a mess. People are living for themselves. Money has become god. A few people start saying it may be the end of the world and...suddenly there is this great revival.

In our world today, there is so much talk about selfishness and disconnectedness and the sad state of everything, but I am starting to see signs of things changing (or coming back around again). There are people out there like Shane Claiborne who has taken a vow of poverty and is working with underprivileged people in the ghettos of Philadelphia...and people are joining him left and right. There are people like Mike Foster who is founding organizations like The Junky Car Club because he doesn't think we need more, we need to realize we have enough. There are people like Andy Freeman and Pete Greig who have been used to start a 24/7 Prayer Movement that is spreading across the world, inviting people to slow their lives down and center themselves on prayer and study with God.

And these things make me feel like I'm coming around to myself as well. They speak to deep parts of my heart and soul that say, "Things aren't as they are supposed to be! I need to slow down! I need to live differently than the world's system!" This current cycle of coming revival is showing me it is possible to be in the world but not of the world, as Jesus prayed for His disciples. That it is possible to not live under this high-pressure, must produce more, must never have free-time mentality.

So, how to wrap this up? I guess I want us to be encouraged that there is a hope for things to be set right. The ultimate cycle is that Jesus is coming back eventually to set an end to all this suffering once and for all. The other challenge is to start that process in our own lives this week. So let yourself have some down time. Create some space to breath and listen to God. Maybe watch one of your favorite shows from your childhood and remember the joy that you had when you were little...and know that within that joy is the fingerprint of what God hopes for us now! God Bless, m.e.

Memories

I just finished looking through several hundred pictures from our Panama Mission Trip, and I am reminded of so many things. It's amazing how that was only two months ago and in some ways it feels like forever. I saw pictures of things I don't even remember happening. I also saw pictures of so many people - so many children - that had moved my heart and that I had wanted to pray for and stay connected to. Yet time has passed and in a lot of ways, I have already forgotten.

It's funny to me how quickly we forget our commitments and our passions. I don't think it's funny to God though. But I also don't think it's a surprise to Him either. You know as you look through the Bible, I see so many things God has tried to do for us to help us remember Him and his commandments. He gave us Moses & the miracle of the Red Sea. He gave us the 10 Commandments on a tablet to be kept in God's temple. He gave us all of these festivals and holidays to remember how He delivered us or saved us or gave us grace. He's always telling people to pile up rocks in remembrance of something. And yet, the people always forget anyway. And we forget too.

But I don't want to forget. I want to remember the way I sensed God as I ministered to little kids who I couldn't even talk to because I didn't know their language. I want to remember how God has always pulled me through every tough and low time I've ever had. I want to remember the joy of being in worship. I want to remember what it felt like when I first realized that Jesus died for my sins. And I think it's going to take things like what God told the Jewish people to do. Set up a monument - a reminder - something that you can't miss that will put you back to where you were when God did something in your life. Maybe it's a picture you hang up somewhere you look everyday. Maybe it's posting up Bible verses. I don't know. But we need to think about this.

I'm going to hang the picture at the top of this post up at my desk with the verse Matthew 19:14
"Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.'"

What are you going to do to remember?