I was perusing through Facebook, one morning, and ran into my union’s Facebook page. There are all sorts of people in the NWSEO that lean in every direction politically. Sometimes, the discussion gets quite heated and off topic from union issues when some of the more politically minded people start squaring off. In one case, there was a guy who had been raised in, blue collar/union is everything, type of family. Sometimes the threads will go on the member vs. non-member of the union. If your not familiar with government service unions, you are not required to join. However, the union negotiates the collective bargaining agreement with the NWS/NOAA, so there are people who benefit from the union without being in the union. This gets to rubs some people the wrong way to the point that some call the non-union people scabs.

I have noticed that in the church, and I’m speaking broadly about the church, that I have witnessed, and read of stories where some people are turned away, if they didn’t do what the people in the church thought they needed to do to earn some service from the church. I’m not necessarily talking about services for the poor, but services for the members.

The gets me to thinking, when do you turn away services to a member or a non-member? I remember that in a church I went to in the past, that another member was annoyed with somebody that the church gave assistance to, wasn’t a consistent church goer and, I think, would go to church somewhere else at times. They felt that there should have been some sort of loyalty to our church. However, I’ve always been puzzled by this attitude.  If we are all believers, but at different places in our story, should loyalty to a church matter, if one is in need? Or do we just ignore them again?

There is a tension. The tension is between helping the person, regardless of their status, believer, non-believer, or someone seeking or not seeking; versus enabling them. Mary and I see this played out day in and day out in our lives. There are people that can be rather maddening in the way that they treat others, and yet come to us for help, usually in a way that seems very manipulative. As I’ve told Mary, we persevere through the manipulation, and help, hopefully to speak into their lives.

However, There is another side to this. Brian Zahnd of Word of Life Church (St. Joseph, MO) says, “Beauty will save the world.” I’m starting to feel that the church in America, has chased relevance,  so far, that instead of being relevant to people, they have become utilitarian (use this product and be cool!). We are in the Box Store mentality that the culture has ushered us down. There is little beauty to left in the world, or in the Christian Church in America. So we give aid, and then people go back to their individual stories, of boring drab lives of trying to acquire things to achieve meaning.

I have to say, that there have been times when I feel like the story of my life has been boring and utilitarian, and other times beautifully written, as if there was an author whom my character actually listened to (Read Don Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Years). Life was filled with astonishing beauty. In some ways, as Mary and I look to move back to Gaylord, I’m looking for an epic story to be a part of, something astonishingly beautiful. When people hear about it, they are brought to tears from the beauty of it. As crazy as things sound, there is something astonishing going on that they want to be a part of.

So who should be served by the church? Everyone, because they need to see the beauty of the Creator in the way that we live. And when they ask why we do what we do, we tell them the astonishing, crazy, beautiful story of a God, who became a baby, to an unmarried teenager, that in today’s world would be just as shunned. Who grew up just like us learning a trade, but turned out to teach the Torah very well, and then took a bunch of unschooled fishermen and taught them what he knew. Somewhere along the line, he managed to make enemies with the local church officials, and the government overseeing the country he lived in. The enemies turned and killed him, but when they did, he took all of the guilt and shame for our rebellious acts, and buried them with him. Then he rose 3 days later, to a new life and body, having given all, to the ones he created…and that beautifully astonishing story continues to go on through the disciples that spread his words to all the earth.

I’m thinking that I’ve been living a boring, mundane story. In some ways, I have, but there have been memorable scenes of conversations over the past 7 years since I met Mary and her kids. I know that I’m not always living a boring story. I’m trying to get into a more interesting one now, again.

In the book, Don talks about a bike trip that he initially didn’t want to do. I would turn into an epic story as he and a group of others were going to ride from Los Angeles, to Washington, D.C. on bikes, for charity. He equated that the beginning would be exciting, but that the middle would seem like they weren’t going anywhere. It would be easy to give up, chose an easier story. Not every story has a payoff. Some just lead into another story.

So, I’m trying not to abandon my story, it seems that there is a part that seems to go on forever. Like the story has come to a halt. I don’t want to abandon it. I need to be on the look out for memorable scenes to have meaningful conversations. I’m trying to be intentional about how my story, and those close to me, how their stories will evolve. That their character arc will bring change into their lives.

I highly recommend this book. I still have more to listen to. I may have to listen to it again.

First, a little background. One of the last podcasts that I listened to from Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Shane Hipps preached about how the age of reason, that has brought us a lot of cool tools, it has hampered our ability to heal based on faith.

Then, as I listened to Brian Zahnd preach at Word of Life Church, in St. Joseph, MO I realized that his idea of the sense of sacredness was one of the things that is missing out of the American church. That sacredness, like that of communion, leads to a faith that believes in what I witnessed tonight.

At the Journey to Bethlehem, I realized at each step, how whacked out the story of how our savior was born. I mean, an angel appears to Mary and Joseph, pretty much telling them that Mary will be an unwed mother, that Joseph will marry her. Then as the night of the birth is upon them, angels pop up and tell these shepherds that the savior is born. I mean really? Okay, I buy into it, but I also partake in communion, where we are eating His body and drinking His blood. As we continue to wonder how to market our churches what if we made those things like baptism and communion, the focus. I we don’t, then we are just singing some uplifting songs, and listening to how to be moral, just like the secular world.

The Thinker by Dano, on Flickr

I feel like I have been down this road a few times. I guess I’m wrestling with God, but He hasn’t put my hip out of joint, yet (I have been listening to Imago Dei Community series called “Wrestling with God”) Or did I just tap out? I’m not sure. I think that I am getting to a point where I am clinging to Him, but I haven’t asked for a blessing. Or have I? I keep asking for the blessing of a loving family, but not just that. I keep asking for a whole family, one that has been healed of it’s wounds. Maybe, in that respect, I am still wrestling with God. I keep hearkening back to the Shane Hipps sermon (Mars Hill, Grandville) on how reasoning in the western world has slowed down faith healing. So, I constantly have to meditate on the passage from Mark, “I believe, help my unbelief.” I usually say this when I feel down, when I don’t think that I’m getting physically healed, or when my family or myself needs to be healed.

I’m beginning to think that my hip socket has been put out of joint, and I am to be renamed.  I’m beginning to think that the “Wrestling with God” series has sparked in me something that says that what I have been doing is about to be completed and I’ll be moving onto something else in my faith.

I’ve seen so much in the last 5 years. I sometimes wish I could go back 3 or 4 years, and start over with some things, but I don’t dwell on it. I can’t go back, and I don’t need another time through it all. I’m coming out on the other side of this reborn, renamed, and with a limp that causes me to seek God, and cling to Him more than where I am now. I want the world, and specifically teenagers to know this difference. I want them to know that if they persevere with their faith, that the wrestling is worth it. I have seen too many “tap out” in favor of what the world tells them. I can think of several off the top of my head that God has me pray for still. I know that God isn’t done with me.

I may add more to the post in the future as I still have to re-listen to Rick Bezet at New Life Church in Little Rock, AR, “I Have Decided To Love His Church.”

Maybe I do know…

The hardware:

In a stroke of bad luck, I broke a pin on the power supply plug for my 4 channel mixer. While looking for a replacement power supply, I discovered that the supplier was having an end of summer clearance sale on their equipment. So, since Mary and I had the money (we discussed this purchase so that she approved it), I got a 12-channel mixer for a little more than it looked like I was going to have to pay for a power supply on my old mixer.  Not only is it a 12 channel mixer, but it has digital effects built into it so you can make things sound a little more “professional.” It also doubles as a mixer for our church on Sundays, giving us more inputs on the soundboard/amp that we use now.

After vacation and some rest, I was feeling urged on that this podcast needs to be started soon. I began looking for my missing pieces. Headphones, microphone, and some cables. Well, since Behringer sold me the mixer on sale, I looked and found a microphone and headphones on sale, add on a windscreen for a pop filter and 15′ of xlr cable and I spent another $50 bucks. So far so good. That stuff will be here on Wednesday. I have a couple more cables to get, to route the sound into the sound card on my computer.

So the hardware is almost complete.

Software:

Looks like Audactiy which I have used in the past will be my recording software. I just have to look into whether I will have to pay for the codec for high quality mp3s to encode this thing.

I also found a free program that acts as a compressor to level out the volume settings. This will be needed if the future that I have “seen” has Mary and I getting into more podcasts and what those formats will be.

The plan:

Well, this is for our high school students. I’m going to put together a podcast of reading the Bible through high school. So in 4 years they will be through the Bible. Slow? maybe, but the idea is to be able to have short casts of Bible reading and some commentary during the school year, with the goal that they will get through the bible by the time they are graduating. I have a plan and a format in my head. I have to get everything together and so that this will work.

When he was at table with two disciples, the Risen Christ took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread and began to give it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him. (Luke 24:13-35)

On my way into work tonight, my audio podcast devotional Pray-as-You-Go, used this section of scripture that describes the walk to Emmaus. This talks about two disciples who were on there way out of Jerusalem and going to Emmaus when they happened upon a stranger. As the three of them discussed the events of Jesus’ death and resurrection, then the stranger talked about the Old Testament verses that described that these events were to take place. It wasn’t until they were having dinner, when the stranger broke the bread that they realized it was Jesus.

So where is Jesus in your everyday life? Have you recognized him yet?

Related post: Watching for Aslan

Susan: Why didn’t I see Aslan?

Lucy: Maybe you didn’t want to.

I think this is endemic in the church. We get into the Sunday services. We even volunteer, but are we looking for Christ?

Over at the Jesus Creed Blog: Scot McKnight is doing a review of King’s Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus by Tim Keller and makes this observation about Keller’s take on the rich young man who asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. (Mark 10:17-29)

Then he sees Jesus pushing the man from seeing God as his boss (from the laws) to God as Savior, and he compels the man to imagine his own life without money. “All you have is me. Can you live like that?” (131). If you want God as savior, you have to get rid of your money as your savior. The issue is the man’s “moral worth” (132). “It’s our moral worth that keeps us from understanding the economy of the cross” (133). Which leads him to Mark 12, and the famous Jesus Creed passage on loving God and loving others.

The other day, I noticed the truck making a noise in the front end. It sounds like another wheel bearing. We were also told that by the owner of the  Suburban that we have been borrowing, they may be needing it back. It would be easy for us to panic over these things, but I’m looking for Christ in the situation. The money that we need isn’t the savior. The Savior may get us the money or some other resource  to help us. We have to be looking for Him and hope to see Him, just like when Lucy is looking for a place to cross the river, she is looking for Aslan to help them.

Of course, as the story goes along, Peter, Lucy’s older brother and high king, decides that they can’t wait for Aslan, and they put together an ill-fated attack on the Telmarines. How often do we do this? Instead of looking for Jesus and waiting for his appearance,  we take matters into our own hands. I often see this in teen relationships. I have seen both guys and girls looking for a relationship. Instead of looking for Jesus and waiting for his appearance to give Godly advice, or introducing them to who God would have them go with, they take matters into their own hands. I can attest to this in my own life while in college. I got into a relationship with a girl that I probably shouldn’t have. Mostly because I took matters into my own hands, instead of looking for him for guidance. I see teens doing this year after year.

I’ve  seen teens, get into jams all the time. They don’t look for Him. They only see the typical saviors, money, friends, and relationships. They see God as boss and not savior. Can you imagine your life without money or friends, relying only on Christ to get your through your circumstance? That’s not to say that you can’t accept money to help you through your circumstance, after all Jesus had people helping Him with His ministry providing support as he went from town to town. The idea is to look for Jesus and rely on him to provide.

I think many times we don’t look for Christ in the everyday, and over spiritualize things to such an extent that when He makes an appearance we don’t recognize Him. We just don’t look. Has a friend offered to give you money or advice (Godly advice), when you were going through something? Teens, if your parents know Christ, do you think that Jesus will make an appearance through them? Do you want Him to? If they don’t know Christ, where are you looking for Him to make an appearance?

When truth can be so distant
and hope evades our reach
Peter swam across the water
and found it on the beach – Five Iron Frenzy

Look for Him. He will be there.

Really, this all comes down to an illustration of a parable that Jesus told about two sons. In the wide world, it’s known as the prodigal son, but the story is really about two brothers. The story tells us that a younger brother gets the inheritance from the father (demonstrating his hate for the father through wishing he were dead), goes and spends it and then is welcomed home by the father. The eldest son sees this, resents it and hates the father by yelling at him for taking the younger son back.

However, I want to look at this from the view of the father. In this case, in terms of things that I have talked about in a previous post, grace and guilt.

As I said in a previous post, one of the things that we learned in Celebrate Recovery is that it is a process and, at least in Celebrate Recovery, that this process has 12 steps. Several of these steps are at work here.

1. We admitted we were powerless over our addictions and compulsive behaviors, that our lives had become unmanageable.

and

9. We made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

We’ve talked about this before, but I when I read this the other day, I wanted to approach this from the father’s perspective. In this case, with youth who have been going behind the backs of their parents. As a volunteer youth leader for some time, I have seen where the kids even are doing “things” and have a hard time coming clean with it to us. Usually, we in the youth ministry know that something has been going on, whether from friends or just interactions with the students. The thing is that even though we know, they are reluctant to confess. When they do, I have said to them, “yeah, I knew that was going on. ” The thing is, that we wait for them to make the first move. There are times that they need to be confronted, but once the sin has been done and it isn’t going on anymore, they often don’t need to be confronted, but they do need to confess it. The problem for me is the waiting.

As I have gotten older, I have begun asking God, “Is this what it’s like for you?” This is no different. God is the father in the parable, and is waiting for the younger son to come home. As patient as I can be, it becomes frustrating for me to wait for those things that I know that people need to get out of their system. So I wait. I’ve waited with things from one of our sons, and I have waited for kids in youth group to return to the fold. It isn’t easy. So I wonder if God gets this frustrated with us, when we don’t run to him.

God wants to throw a party for us, if we will just come back and confess. Ease your conscience, confess and set yourself free.

I’ll start with a story that Drew has told in these sessions before. There was a kid in a small group that he ran who once called to ask him if it was a big deal to smoke weed. Drew said it wasn’t a big deal. The kid asked, “so it’s okay to smoke weed.” Drew replied, “It’s not a big deal.” The kid was about to say good by and hang up when Drew said this, “I want you to be a big deal.” I’m paraphrasing this, but the point was that God created you to be a big deal. When you go off and do the stuff like everyone else, then you diminish who you could be.

So what does that have to do with sex and God’s plan? As Drew put it, and I agree, if you are avoiding sex, so you don’t get pregnant (or getting someone pregnant), or to avoid an sexually transmitted disease, then you might as well grab some condoms and go forth. However, if you have faith in God, then don’t, and realize that God has faith in you. In fact, to drive the point home, let’s look at what Jesus did.

First, think of the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11), the Pharisees and others drag her in front of Jesus. After Jesus tells them that he who is without cast the first stone, they all leave and he then has the following conversation (NIV):

Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

¹¹ “No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,”Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Jesus doesn’t condemn her and tells her to leave her life of sin. We never hear any more about her. However, in a way He has faith in her to go forth and follow Him. Some think that this woman was Mary Magdelene although the passage is unclear.

Here’s a more direct story. Matt 14:28-33. This is where Jesus walks on the water.  Now, Peter asks if he can walk on water. Why, because Jesus is his rabbi and the disciple wants to be like the rabbi. So Peter walks out there. However, he falters as he looks at the winds and waves. So what happened? did Peter lose faith in Jesus? No. He lost faith in himself to be like his rabbi. Drew’s point is this, Jesus has faith in you, but you need to have faith in yourself to be like your rabbi (Jesus).

Are you or have you been in relationship? Does it have to be sexual before marriage? You think that this person is the one, but are they? We often, in the church, fall back on the shame and honor culture of the Old Testament, when we need to introduce people, especially teens to the New Testament. If we do, the doubt they often experience comes from their own self image, and not their doubt in Jesus to forgive. They don’t think that they can be like their rabbi (Jesus).

Remember this, Jesus has faith in you to follow Him. The disciples often messed up, but Jesus always brings them back and they follow. So you think that there is no way for you to get into a relationship without sex? Think again. God will bring the right one. You have to have faith not just in God to do bring the right one, but also you have to have faith in yourself that you can hold on until He does.

Then I was listening to some music right after that and the song by The Letter Black, “Hanging on by a Thread,” came on in the playlist, and this part of the song struck me:

Save me from losing myself
I’m hanging on by a thread
Can You see who I am
Underneath my scars?
I’m afraid to fall
So I’m holding on to You
No I won’t let go
I’m hanging on by a thread

The song is asking for God to notice them and love them. That’s what Peter Rollins asserts that noticing your neighbor is loving them. People are in need of love, being noticed is a part of that.

So now I take it a step further. With teens, what are they longing for? Belonging, being noticed, by their friends, in their world, and for some in their families.  Being noticed, being accepted, belonging. The one thing that I have noticed about the TV show Skins, the kids are all looking for belonging. The show is all based on them finding ways to be noticed by their friends, and in many cases finding ways to be noticed by their families. Many times, it is in not so healthy way.

So one of the ways that experts have found to keep teens and young adults to remain in church, is to give them responsibility in church. When the church notices them, they stay in community. Plugging people into the community is key to discipling them.

I have worked hard at making sure that our kids are noticed by Mary and I. I have worked hard to make sure that kids in youth group are noticed. Has it all worked out? Not always. I still struggle to notice and love people sometimes. Things get in the way. If you read Ecclesiastes, King Solomon admits that everything is futile.  In Ecclesiastes 2:1-10, he lists off all of the things that he has experienced: pleasure, alcohol, building bigger houses, accumulations of possessions, etc. Everything is empty. His conclusion? Be content with what you have (Ecc 2:24-26) and enjoy your work. When you skip to Ecc. 12, you find that he has come full circle, honor God, because this all disappears.