But I know the band!

Attending a university with an excellent music business program meant there are several friends who eventually started being people I now hear all over the radio. So I thought I would mention a few of those here. 1. Sidewalk Prophets [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8BBCYFAYRI&w=560&h=315] 2. Jon McLaughlin (and his band) [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcDdso4rzXc&w=560&h=315] 3. Tenth Avenue North (one of the guys) [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwtcwQwgdsA&w=560&h=315]

You're Welcome: Tebowing

Every once in a while you come across a website that just steals your attention right from under you. You may not even know why, but you find yourself just mindlessly clicking through because you just have to see one…more…post.

These will be things I find to share with you; things before you thank me for showing, I’ll just say, “You’re welcome!”

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Planking is so outdated. If you do not know what planking IS, you completely missed it already. There have been several phases come and gone (planking, owling, etc.). Now if are ready to "get down on one knee and start praying, even if everyone else around you is doing something completely different"...or look at several pictures of other people doing this, then you need to get in on the newest craze sweeping the country at tebowing.com

You're welcome!

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Building 7, Apartment 7:8

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A friend lives in an apartment complex, and that is all I know.  What I want to do is find my friend and hang out, to be with him.  So I go to the front office and I ASK for my friend.  Whomever is available will give me some further information to help me find my friends so I can hang out with him.  I am told he lives in Building 7, Apartment 7-8.  So my next step is to begin a search for building 7, Apartment 7-8.  I SEEK out his building among the many.  I have to check the complex maps and layouts; I have to drive slowly to find the building numbers.  Once I come across building 7, I walk up to apartment # 7-8.  It has come to this point.  I am this close to being with my friend. Having asked and sought him out, there remains only one thing to do.  I have to KNOCK on the door, and he will answer. Having asked, I was given instruction; Having sought, I found; Having knocked, the door was opened...

I want change but not really

The majority of us can admit a need for change within ourselves.  We know the parts of our lives where change is needed and would be favorable.  For some of us, we know these things well as we continually obsess over them and dwell on them for long periods of time. A majority of us, if asked, could give a great account of the deep wounds and hurts as well as the hang-ups and struggles that plague us all the time.  We know where change is needed.  We know where healing is needed within our lives.

What great relief we would know if we could be healed!  What a wonderful instance it would be if there was a great healer and physician to heal and bring change to the areas we most need them!

Another majority of us would say, "But there is!"  There is a great physician who is capable of changing and healing those areas that darken our daily lives.  We know God calls us to him for that healing and change.

There is one great problem!  The problem is in the way we come to that healer.  The problem is in how we come to God.

We typically come to God without those things which need to be healed and changed.  We most often come to God with our spiritual selves, our spiritual words, spiritual actions, spiritual presentations.  We come with all the pretty parts and leave the ugly parts that NEED the healing and the change.

We "come to God" in our prayer (among other ways), but how do we pray?  What do we pray?  Do we come praying all of the pretty words we have learned?  Do we pray the pretty things that look very spiritual and "okay" or "fine"?

What a shame that we who know we need healing refuse to bring the parts of ourselves that need change before the master healer and physician!

Transformation and change is possible to us who need it so drastically, and we, the majority, refuse to bring those areas before God who is capable and willing to heal and transform.

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Your toolbox is not disposable

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A few years ago, I was working at a recovery ministry to the poor and addicted. My time there came with a certain amount of training, and that training was fantastic.  I was trained in several recovery programs and processes, but this training required me to engage myself with the process.  This training required me to actually look at myself, self-evaluate and wrestle with the issues which arose.  I dealt with wounds I had hidden.  I dealt with some addictive behaviors, some coping tendencies, and some past "ish".  I was trained in this fashion in order to truly walk along with the residents on their road to healing and recovery as opposed to being simply an instructor. My reflection on that time today has me realizing something; I have forgotten a lot of those things I had learned.  Sure, I could remember some of the technicalities and book answers, but I have nearly forgotten how to engage and participate in the process.  I was given some very valuable tools, and I have lost them to atrophied disuse.

It has brought me to a particular question.  Why did I receive those tools in the first place?  I may have received them simply for the job and not as much for myself in that once the job was gone, I ceased to use the tools.  It is as if I was given a toolbox of really nice tools, used them for one project and threw them away as though they were disposable.

Then it had me wondering what other sorts of tools I have lost because I discontinued their use.

The problem arises in the fact I have ceased to use the tools I was given in my life and I remain derelict in certain areas; I remain incomplete and unhealed in certain areas of my life.  There are tools I have lost, which need to be discovered and used.  There are likely other tools I have thrown away in the garbage can with the marking "apathy" upon it.

How many tools have I thrown away?  How many bits of wisdom from mentors, friends, others?  How many life-changing books, sermons, talks?

When we fail to use such valuable tools they end up being lost and perhaps thrown away.

How disappointing!  Those were some of my favorite tools!

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Favorite Poet: Propaganda [again]

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This is the first piece I had ever seen by Propaganda, and it had me hooked from the first word. I saw it at Catalyst West Coast, but this performance is from Catalyst Atlanta. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9A4-_9nuMo&w=420&h=315]

Part 1

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The mystery of intimacy

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Intimacy with someone has a certain place for holding some things back; not telling the person all about you right away.  I will explain. God has created us in his image, and we all know that is very mysterious.  That has a lot to do with our finite minds trying to conceptualize an infinite God; so of course He will appear mysterious to us.  But think of it this way; God could reveal to us everything about himself if he wanted to (and if we could handle it), but he does not.  For this reason, my relationship with God is always new and exciting. My intimacy with God consists of me attempting to know a mysterious God, and that means moving from discovery to new discovery, from surprise to surprise.  My relationship with God does not grow stale unless I am discontent with the mystery.  My relationship with God is intimate and exciting when I embrace the mystery and look forward to the next new discovery about the heart of God.

If God revealed everything about himself to me in one moment I would have nothing left to desire; I would have no level of intimacy having known everything I needed to know.  My relationship grows stale because the excitement of new discovery is lost.

Now, created in the image of God, our relationships with one another are very much the same. Perhaps we are intended to live with a healthy level of mystery.  Within every relationship we have there should be some varying degree of mystery.  Even within the most intimate relationship two humans can know, marriage, there should always be some level of mystery.

Many people would likely disagree with me, saying that marriage should be the one human relationship where you know everything about the other person. I think that is the very reason so many marriages grow stale so quickly.  As human beings, our great need and desire is to know and be known.  Now many married couples are asked to “get it all out” as soon as possible so that you may know each other and everything about each other, and we call that ‘intimacy’.

Realizing we are all created in the image of God, we have to realize this is certainly NOT in the image of God.  Intimacy is found in a level of mystery.  I cannot explain the thrill I get when my relationship with God reveals some new face of God I have never known before.

I also cannot quite explain how thrilling it is to learn something new about my wife I had never known before.  There is excitement about seeing my wife in a new light.  THAT is embracing the image of God in Tonya, the mystery of my wife.

Embracing the mystery of another person for the sake of intimacy does not mean hiding everything; it simply means a random new and exciting discovery (or revelation) here and there.  Tonya should be learning new things about me for the rest of our lives, and that should excite her. I should be excited to learn new things about my wife.

“I never knew that about you; thank you for showing that part of yourself to me.  I am closer to you now than I was before you showed me.”

Most marriages, friendships, relationships are driven by this “share everything” type of honesty, and that appears to be a great intimacy…for a short time; until you realize there is nothing left to give or show.  You have ruined the mystery.  You have ruined the excitement of discovery.  You have ruined the mystery of intimacy.

Worry Wart

Where did that word come from?  Why do we call people who worry "worrywarts"?  What a gross image to attach to anyone!  What is it about disgusting warts that, at some point, made someone say to his worrisome friend, "You know what!  You worry too much; you're like a....a...like a WART!" Is it because a worrisome person has a root that goes beneath the surface that needs to be killed to REALLY make the worry go away?

Is it because worrisome people are an eyesore on the fingers of society? (I say "fingers" because that is generally where my warts reside)

Is it because worrisome people continue to avoid the removal of the disgusting part of themselves because of some unknown reason...because why would you actually WANT a wart (or to worry), and yet why don't you take the proper steps to remove the wart (or the worry)?

I'm not entirely sure why worrisome people are called worrywarts, but I have been thinking about worry today.  In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:25-34) Jesus talks about worry.  I love to remember how absolutely pointless Jesus reminds us that worry actually is. "Has anything good happened BECAUSE you have worried?  What has ever got better because you worried about it?"  It poses the classic response to a good stand-up comedian; "Its funny because its true."

What does all that have to do with warts?  I'm not too sure...

* I decided to spare you the inclusion of a pic for this post

10 Random Facts

A friend of mine, Malisa, recently created a similar post. Since I also love to make random lists, this was a idea to me. 1. I played football for 7 years and trumpet for 9. I hated marching band but loved concert band. I never had to march because I played football. I was a first chair trumpet player and an offensive tackle. I grew to hate playing football year round, so I quit my senior year. Once I realized, "I'll have to march now," I quit trumpet the same time.

2. I cannot start a movie and not finish it in the same sitting. My brain just will not allow it.

3. My first regular job was a bagger and cart wrangler at Meijer in Muncie, IN...BUT my first paying job was as the Easter Bunny in the mall.

4. I am outrageously introverted and mild-mannered and relatively soft-spoken, which is obvious to some and perhaps very surprising to most.

5. I love using dry erase markers on windows for meeting purposes. Who needs a white board when I have these dry erase markers in my bag right now. Oh, and...

6. I don't carry a purse. I carry a book bag. Thank you very much.

7. If I were not in full time ministry, I think I would like to be a window washer.

8. I love making lists. Yes, I sort of include to-do lists, but I am talking more about High Fidelity sorts of lists. My top 5 this or thats! My 5 hypothetical things I would want. I may enjoy doing this too much.

9. I cannot do a cartwheel, but I get urges to do them every once in a while. One of these days, there will be an hilarious show for all those around me...

10. One of my favorite childhood toys was a used word-processor. I loved writing even then. I wrote stories. I wrote letters to magazine editors just to see if it would show up in the "Letters to the Editor" section.