Christmas Can [still] Change the World

I remember a Christmas when, after all the gifts were received, it still felt empty. Presents cannot be what Christmas is about – anymore that’s just another stressor around Christmas time. Christmas was supposed to be a time of love, joy, and peace. Not running around to find the last gift for every last person.

Advent Conspiracy poses a mostly forgotten idea. Worship fully, spend less, give more, and love all. 

Their website explains this idea better than I can, and they point to some other websites with great alternative ideas. Let’s help people this Christmas, instead of giving gifts that are wasted.

Two Masters

It’s weird. I reached one of my self-established goals that I set for myself before I would get a girlfriend..and now that just seems further away and so empty, like everything else. Where’s the hope, what’s the point?

I think I’m meant for something majestic. But isn’t everything we do on earth meaningless.. at least in the larger picture? What’s the point in trying for these worldly attainments if we’re soon to leave?

Isn’t our entire goal in life to live for God? How many people can truly live for God while they’re chasing after money, looking around for a woman, and indulging in every possible pursuit and pleasure? You really can’t serve two masters, so how do you “combine” them or somehow serve God while still living in this world?

Running the Race

Eric Liddell was a strong Christian known for his unique running style. He was an outstanding Scottish athlete who won many races. We can learn a few things from his race.

Crazy windmill – His style of running was described as a “windmill.” He waved his arms as he ran, not exactly orthodox. Be yourself when you run the race, even if others criticize you. It’s not how you run the race, but the very fact that you run for God.

Raised head to the sky – As Eric ran, he many times closed his eyes and turned them up towards heaven. We need to focus, not on our earthly goal, but ultimately on God.

Speed – Eric was an incredibly fast runner. Life is temporary, it is a race.. run your best.

Caroline’s Story

She’s leaving him again. It seemed so right this time, but she was let down… again. Green florescent lights the gray walls, gray like her heart. Every bit of color was washed away by the dirt and dirty water of years painfully remembered. Even though her limbs are moving, her love is dead.

“Where will you go?” I ask as she picks up her bag. “Anywhere. Anywhere away from this dismal dwelling. I need to breathe again.” I offer to help her, but am flatly refused. She’s an independent girl.

I met Caroline five years ago, at a family camp, where we read scripture and sang songs of praise. She’s not singing anymore. Caroline was your average teenage girl, who had your average heartbreaks and average recoveries from that pain. Eventually, the heartbreaks were too often and the recovery became harder and harder. The only place to turn for help was another lover destined for another broken heart.

I remember one time while we were walking down a suburban sidewalk, talking back and forth as a good friends do. We shared our dreams, Caroline and I. We were not lovers, but simply friends who cared for each other. She hoped for true love and had big dreams in store. I was in the midst of despising love and didn’t know what I wished to do with my life. She knew where she wanted to go.

Until the baby came. No one knows how such things happen. Perhaps it is a gradual decline, where even the best of persons can end up living in death. Maybe it’s happenstance that thrusts some people into a situation they would never enter, apart from that single instant. However it happens – it is irreversible. The tides of life push some to sunny shores, while it pulls others out into the swallowing waves of water.

The child impacted us all; her friends, her family, everyone who knew her. We prayed, we cried, and we tried praying some more. You can’t pray to change a deed already done, only to change the people involved, change them into better people. Give them peace and love – we pray.

As the memories of the events fly past my mind’s eye, I wonder if I could have done something different. What words should I have said, how could I have shown her love? Was there any hope for a different outcome, or was her life destined to progress like this? I suppose the only way to help her now is to love her.

I watch her slender form disappear past the flickering lights. As she walks down the hallway, I find peace. I know I will see her again, and while she is gone, I know she will be held in arms much stronger then my own. Caroline – you leave with my prayers for a better life this time. Godspeed.

(Caroline is not simply a girl of my dreams, nor of my nightmares. She is a fragile, broken person who makes her life in this world and whose memory lives on in my head.)

Manly Emotions?

Recently, I’ve found myself to be a lot more emotional. It’s funny, the picture we hold of a “man” is a nicely tanned, thin, ripped, masculine man. You know the type – at least from pictures. You know what’s weird? Jesus wasn’t in that picture. 

The Bible says there was nothing to make him attractive to men. (He wasn’t the blue-eyed, caucasian, Americanized Jesus we pretend sometimes. He was probably strong, but not excessively or showy.) I bet when he was on earth he was just like you or me. Weird thought, huh?

I once heard; “To be truly strong, you must learn to be gentle.” (or something like that, I’m paraphrasing.) Basically – it isn’t about big muscles and fake smiles. To be more of a man you need to try to be more like the man. Jesus wasn’t any body builder or anything, he was loving.

What’s a man to you? Someone who is pressing 200 pounds or is holding doors open?

Are High School Sports Interfering with Teens Growing Deep? (Live Talk)

My good friend, Brian Ford, will be speaking on the Live Youth Ministry Conversation this Friday at 2. He will be discussing “Are High School Sports Interfering with Teens Growing Deep?” His post of the same title has already provoked lots of feedback, and it should prove to be an interesting conversation.

 

Tune in Friday at 2!

Rotten Treasure Box

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. (2 Corinthians 4:6-10)

We are like an old treasure box. Rotten wood, rusty hinges, buried in dirt. But within us lies a great treasure – worth more than gold and rubies. We as Christians have a message. We are broken people, tired, and not the best-looking. But we should not let this keep us from sharing this treasure with others.

Forget what others think about your appearance. You are a rotten treasure box.

True

We’ve all been looking for something
we know it’s out there, waiting
we wander from day to day
looking, searching for something new
yet we still linger
we still wonder
is there more than this sunup, sundown 
and nothing in between?

I know you’ve been looking
I’m at your side, my eyes flickering
where is the fire we thought we had
was it only an ember
a meaningless moment
meant to die away with the others
are we ever to be fulfilled by anything?

I’ll tell you
it’s not in films
made of sounds and colors
it’s not in food
even the most elegant
it’s not in people
no matter their status quo
it’s not in late nights
it’s not in walks and oceans and skies
it’s not music or pictures

It’s everywhere
it’s waiting
for you

Realize true love, true life
it’s not where you’re living, 
how you’re living
it’s why you exist
it’s love

Dear Little Girl

Little girl, you’re loving wrong. Your love is meant to be directed in one direction, to one man alone. Save yourself for him. Think of the beauty of your friendship one day. Stop chasing the boys, get to know what a man is, search for the one. Don’t give your heart to any other.

I know it’s hard right now. You feel alone. You feel like no one loves you. But you are loved. Foremost, God loves you – no one can ever take that away. Your friends and family love you – even when it doesn’t seem like it and you don’t know it for sure. Your future husband loves you and yearns for the day you meet.

You are beautiful. Don’t listen to the voices. They tell you lies, they twist the truth. Beauty is more than what they say – they don’t want you to know that. When you know the truth, you will be free from their lies. Please, believe it, girl. You are beautiful.

Girl, you are more than a number. They put you in boxes, they label you along with others. You are a unique person, you are one among the many ones. You don’t need their brand names to belong. You belong, just by being here. 

I cry for you. I wish you could see the truth. Please, believe. Understand all the words I cannot say. I cannot pack my emotion into any list of nouns and adjectives. Know this..

You are loved.

Different Fields

I was reading today in my college class book, “Reel Spirituality” about how Catholics and Protestants differ. 

“…Catholic theologians and artists tend to emphasize the presence of God in the world, while the classic works of Protestant theologians tend to emphasize the absence of God from the world.”

This made me think, as I am a Protestant myself and it’s interesting to compare my views with others. The general thought is to stay away from worldly things or you will stray from God. While on the other hand, you could seek to find God in the worldly things.

This (and other compounding factors) brought me to this thought.

God is in all things. The problem is when you make all things God.

You can find threads of Christianity, God, and love in secular music, movies, and other entertainment. In fact, we need to keep that line of communication open between the church and the world. As Bishop T.D. Jakes said in an interview with Time magazine,

“[Cinema] can be [the next frontier of evangelism]. The gospel is not about standing and saying ‘Come to me.’ It’s about going where they are, and the world is at the theater.”