Staff meeting 10am

Songs being sung this Sunday July 3rd:
America, the Beautiful
God of Our Fathers
Patriotic Medley
My Country, Tis of Thee
Battle Hymn of the Republic

Also it is communion sunday

Also my students will be in church instead of leaving to go to sunday school

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

and I sat there and didn't really say anything

but I guess you have to pick your battles

I'm luck enough to have my students be allowed to read scripture as part of the service. Though instead of 2 Cor 12:13-13:12, it's getting shortened, because they don't want the kids to have to read for so long. But it's ok for you (pastor) to read that long!!!!!

I'm sure this post will get me fired. But it's my blog and I can say whatever I want.

< /rant>

A thought struck me today. I started (well have been and it came up again) thinking about when Jesus clears the temple.

See
Matthew 21:12-17
Mark 11:15-18
Luke 19:45-48

Are we ever called to do this? Would it be right in today's world? If we are to emulate Christ, then isn't this part of working to maintain a healthy church? Or is this reserved only for the Son of Man?


As a side note:
Continuing to think about anger, even as a good thing.
Brian McLaren said (from Emergent 05) "One of the things anger tells us is that there is deep passion. You don't get angry about things you don't care about."
I think this statement sums up why it may be perceived that I am "angry" at the church. Though in my mind, I care and love and am passionate about church, which for me boils down to frustration.

Please focus more on the upper statement if you are going to respond. The bottom statement is more informative and to put the upper statement in context.

I'm glad to announce the beginnings of a Southern California Emergent Cohort.

I just found about this a few days ago, and it has been something that I've been hoping would happen for a while.

I wrote a post called "wrong doings" about it. Well that was the thought...I digressed, oh well.

Check out http://emergentsocal.blogspot.com for more info. And stay tuned for more info about meetings and such. If you care about the church and where it's going then here's your invitation to join when we meet.

Feel free to post here or there with questions, concerns, contact info, etc.

I had another one today. See here for previous post.

This time I added beans and guac.

Yummy.

I want to clear a few things up. Lately I've seemed to create a number of comments. Some concern, some affirmation.

Here are a few statements about this blog.

Most of what I write is me thinking out loud.

I hope the outcome of what I write is discussion. (that's what the comments are for)

You are free to disagree with anything I write.

I try not to feel obligated to write a defense when people disagree.

If you first disagree with what I say, please take the time to re-read the post carefully.

Ask for further explanation if things seem confusing.

I do not represent Emergent in any official capacity.

I love the Church with all my heart. My love is what fuels most of my writing. Please do not think that I am "out to get" the church.

I am at a point in my life where I am questioning my theology, and "conventional theology". Or, stated another way, I am asking questions about the way we do church.

I do not have all the answers. I probably don't even have a few answers.

Thank you for reading.

Go Ghetto Blog

Matt left a comment on the post Molding. Read his comment and then it'll explain a little where I'm going on this one.

I think my argument for less of me, comes from the oversaturated world of dominant personalities running churches.

I don't want to become a personality, I don't want my ministry to be dependent on me.

If I leave I want things to continue, not because of me, but because I have instilled the right values and standards in those I minister to.

Jesus' ministry lasted on and on because of who he was. Although I don't feel that while he was doing ministry it was about HIM. Well it was, but in the true way ministry should be. He should be the personality that we are following.

I cannot model the same ministry that Christ did, because I am not Christ. So the best I can do is move out of the way and let Christ be the center of my ministry.

Yes, I need to be filled with authority, I need to be a leader. But I need to make sure that I don't become the ministry.

But I what we don't need is a constant barrage of people who say I go to so and so's church. Or you should come to my church because of Pastor _______. Christ should draw people not us. Yes, we can be what helps draw people to Christ, but we are called to be used by Christ for his purposes.

So I stand by my statement less of me. With the hope that now I have more fully explained where I am coming from.

New Ghetto Blog

If you have been following for any length of time then you will know that I am a Director of Youth Ministry at a church.

I have the unique opportunity to do something that I've never done in ministry before. I have before me the task of starting a Youth Program. I deliberately didn't use the title "Youth Group" for the reason that I feel my ministry is moving in a direction that moves past "program/group" status.

Herein lies the greatest challenge. I have a great desire to move towards a model of teaching and experience that doesn't conform to the typical format of "Youth Group".

I have the ability to do anything I want when it comes to starting my program. ANYTHING.

I'll admit, I'm totally scared.

I've never done this. And for someone who talks and talks about wanting to be given the opportunity to do things differently, I'm lost for words or ideas.

Well maybe not totally lost, but apprehensive. Indecisive.

I think I may be putting off making decisions, 1 for not knowing totally knowing what I'm doing and 2 (most importantly) that I want to take the intentional time to think through thoroughly about what it is I'm going to be doing.

I think I've started in the right direction, since much of my ministry over the last 3 months has been building a foundation for ministry, built on relationships. I do not want my ministry to be built on program.

I want the opportunity for my students to experience God without the distraction of "church". I want to create a meaningful place for worship, with less of me. Less of me talking and more of them doing. More of them knowing Christ.

It's different. It's not what I'm used to. I'm not even sure how to evaluate myself in the coming months as I start to implement these ideas.

How do I actively "teach' without having to say too much?

I'm thankful for meeting Lilly Lewin at Emergent, she has given me much to think about in terms of providing students with "experiential worship". I'm excited to read Dan Kimball's book when it comes out called, "They like Jesus, but not the Church" (outdated link, but you get the jist) as well as hopefully get some more face time with him in the near future. (Dan if you read this let's get together at NYWC in Sacramento)

As I (we) enter a new paradigm of how church can be done, it has always been in the back of my head that Youth Ministry can be a catalyst of change in how we "do" church. Students, especially, desire for ways to connect with God, that is more than sitting and listening. They have the need to participate in how God is working. Worship is the perfect place for people to come, experience joy, experience hurt, experience forgiveness. Often times, for them and me, it is increasingly hard to experience God if we are not allowed to question, discuss, and move during our worship experience.

Where does this leave me...probably no where closer to knowing what I actually want to do. But it does at least put myself out there. Help me. Be my community. Be iron, let us sharpen one another. Challenge me. Ask questions, force me to flush out these ideas and ideals. One way or another we'll see what happens come fall.

Continue to keep my ministry in your prayers.

Don't forget about the prayer requests on the left. I desire to pray for all of you as well.

I've been thinking, as I usually do and I've come to a conclusion.

short term mission = Christian vacation

The argument that I'm about to make comes from the desire for resources to be used more responsibly. Not that I'm saying that good doesn't come from people going to foreign places, please don't think that I don't think that good is accomplished by these missions.

Let me start with stating where this whole argument starts.

Basically I've become more aware of how sin works in our lives. Sin is good at taking things that are good and slightly altering them to serve alternative purposes. Not that these things aren't still good, but when they become altered they then lose the ability to fully be used for their greatest good.

A really bad example.

Take icecream. By its self = good. Then take something like bar-b-q sauce and put some on top. It messes it up. Yes it is still good underneath, but not quite as good if you hadn't slightly altered it at all.

Sin works really well because we soon to live with the fact that our icecream is slightly messed up but we learn to live with it. Sin uses the fact that we don't get upset that what we are doing is no longer pure. We lose the desire to go back to what we know as truly good.

I am very tired of putting up with lesser good. I am tired of letting sin convince me that 2nd best is ok.

Back to missions.

I have developed a problem with short term (1 week to a month) missions, over the last few months.

Over and over I hear of churches planning "mission trips" to far off places, like Africa, South America, Asia and other 3rd world nations, in the name of "doing good". These trips often focus on providing a service, ie building something, doing "service" or evangelism, etc., for part of the week then taking 2-3 days to "sight-see". Very few of the trips focus entirely on service. Yet even when service is involved, it is mostly for the participants instead of the focus being on others. A prime example of the ego-centric trips would be the "mexico house building" trips. But that's a whole separate post.

The other part of these trips that bother me is the cost. 3000-7000 depending on where and how long you go. THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!!!!! x 5-10 participants = either 15,000 or 30,000 dollars. Imagine how far that money would go if it was merely sent to the place where people were going and the local people, who know how to build things and how to run programs, used that money themselves!!!!!! Not only would there be less arrogant Americans there thinking that they are doing tremendous amounts of good, but those people in the places would be able to spread the money so much further because many of these nations do not have to pay what it costs for us to do the work here. Example: Bricks, mortar and wood for a church - American (made up figure) $20,000 the same materials in a 3rd world nation (once again made up) $1,000. I think it is clear how much further that money would go in a 3rd world nation, instead of using most of our "mission" money for travel to and then "sight-seeing".

The time has come for churches to stop the spread of "Christian Vacation" trips with the added bonus of "doing good for God".

What these missions boil down to is a Christian Vacation. We have let good become slightly perverted and then we try and justify ourselves by saying that we are doing good.

This happens over and over in our Christian lives. Think about new doors on a church or a renovation of a garden area. How much of our church budgets or special donations go towards improvements instead of ministry?

Your new _______ at your church costing _______. Think about if that money could have been poured into youth ministry or children's ministry. How many more lives could have been touched than building ________?

What would be even better is people recognizing that there are plenty of needs in our own community. Pour your 3000 dollars into a local mission or food bank. Spend a week in a shelter with people with no homes and little or no money. Think of someone other than yourself. I mean that last sentence in the terms of the fact that Satan convinces us that by us going somewhere we are doing something good, that we are thinking of the "other", but in all actuality we are thinking most of all about "me".

Take a stand and make your voice heard. I want churches to "do ministry". Put your resources where they are needed most. Pay youth workers. Invest money in things that we have not let sin take a hold of. Do not let yourself be fooled into thinking that because good can come of something, that it is the best good that can come.

Sin is very, very good at turning truth into false good. Do not be duped by the falsehood into thinking that just because there is good in what we do that we are doing the best good. Seek what is true and pure.

Combat the lies that Satan tells us that we are doing good. Go on vacation, but if you serve, serve with love and in truth. Allow God to motivate you to his work.

I caved in to advertising. Which I usually don't do.

Introducing the Taco Bell's:

Crunchwrap Supreme

Today AJ, Bobby and I went to Taco Bell to examine the wonders of the UFO shaped eatery.

When we got there, AJ was the first one to order, instead of asking for the "Crunchwrap Supreme" he asked for the "UFO thing".

The guy gave a great chuckle and finished his order. By the time I got up there, I said "one UFO", he repeated to the people working "uno UFO". Awesome!!!

Other than that part of the story. It was actually good.

It's unique shape easily combines the beauty of a taco and a burrito.

It avoids the TNS (taco neck syndrome)(the head tilt to the side) that is usually associated with eating tacos. Since it is easily handled and consumed. I did get a little lettuce spillage after about the 50% mark since there wasn't enough to contain all the insides. Other than that it had everything (except for beans) that one could want in a standard burrito/taco. Tomatoes, beef, nacho cheese, lettuce, sour cream, a tortilla, and a hard shell, and it even has the "grilling".

I give it a thumbs UP.

Apparently it is still in testing phases, so who knows if it'll come back as a permanent item on the Taco Bell menu. I hope it does or I will have to go to taco bell a lot.

Here are the Nutritional Facts for the Chrunchwrap Supreme which retails in CA for 1.99
serving size - 254 g
serving per container - 1
calories - 560
calories from fat - 210
total fat - 24 g 37% of Daily value
saturated fat - 9 g 45%
cholesterol - 35 mg 12%
sodium - 1350 mg 56%
total carbohydrate - 70 g 23%
dietary fiber - 4 g 16%
sugars - 7 g
protein - 17 g
vitamin A - 8%
vitamin C - 8%
calcium - 25%
iron - 20 %

Tonight, from now to sleep will be a reading night.

The Book:
A New Kind of Christian by Brian McLaren
(one of many other books I'm reading right now)

The Beverage:
Charles Shaw 2002 Chardonnay from Trader Joe's

...relaxed

As the misty rains drizzled down on the crowd, shouts of "undie run, undie run" could be heard echoing through the streets of Westwood.

A group of around 2000-2500 runners and around 700-1000 spectators lined the streets.

As the time drew near to midnight the last Wednesday before the end of finals, the excitement built. Undie run...undie run...undie run. The crowd chanted.

Bodies packed closely to each other. Scantily clad. From the daringly small speedos to the conservative boxerbriefs to bras and panties. Everything was represented. Hats, helmets, costumes and even ties.

The crowd surged taking hurried steps down the lined streets, people cheering and hooting. The excitement was overwhelming as flashes from phones and cameras and the occasional light of a video camera greeted you at every step.

As the mass moved along the street there were high fives, hugging, grabbing of butts and the occasional waterbaloon from the balconies above.

Due to the excessive amount of people, after reaching the turn-around point, we struggled to push our way back through the impeding remnant of those still making the initial journey. Finally our efforts paid off and we returned to our original starting spots only to stand for minutes on end waiting for the wave of runners to return over the next quarter of an hour. As we stood on the smoke filled streets of Westwood, greeting those completing the course, a look of satisfaction and contentment swept over our faces.

This may well be the last Undie run for myself and one of the founding members, my companion Kevin Hampton. As Kevin graduates so does a long line of men who took a debaucherous tradition of "mid-night yell" and resurrected it as "THE UNDIE RUN".

With this quarter's growth (as it has grown since the winter of 2001) may mark the start of a downfall as it's innocence is being lost, as it serves the masses, instead of the ideals which on it was founded.

Next year will bring changes as the founders fade into memory and as the run moves to a circular course, instead of the traditional single route and turn around point, hopefully the new route will accommodate all those wishing to participate in the grandeur that is

UNDIE RUN

Below is a photo essay of the 2005 Spring Undie Run and past Undie Runs.


Kevin Hampton and Me before.


We are now ready!!


We made it!!!
from the left Jeff and Darrell (Kevin's roommates) Myself and Kevin


Undie Run Spring 2004
(me in the box on the ledge)


Undie Run Winter 2003
(me on the left in the beanie and scarf)

P.S.
Hi to the random girl who slapped my butt while we were standing on the corner at 11:30pm. Really just kinda funny.

It's that time of year again.
UCLA UNDIE RUN
You can find previous post here and picture here.

Even though I never attended UCLA I enjoy participating in the yearly UNDIE RUN.

It's exactly what you think it is. A large crowd of people (yes, females included) running down the street in just their underwear, shouting "UNDIE RUN, UNDIE RUN" at the stroke of midnight on the Wed before finals end.

I'll try and find pictures in the near future.

1x ghetto blog

In case you've been reading my blog for some time now and are still confused about the whole "emergent thing"

here

is a great resource.

I just spent some time researching Emergent type churches here in LA...hmmm...I think we are doing something wrong.

There were like 3 that I found. And they were in Fullerton or Downtown LA. None in the Valley.

Are we doing something wrong. With a population of over 3.5 million people in LA county, I would hope that this would be a hot bed for Christ to move in.

Maybe I'm just being idealistic here.

But maybe I'm not.

What are we doing wrong?

Are we not presnting a Christ that draws people to himself?

I guess not. There must be at least a few things we can change in the way we are doing church that will allow people to encounter a genuine Christ.

I want to move.

Meaning I want to get out of the way. And allow Christ to be the great I AM.

Me, myself, and I, not to mention churches are getting in the way of allowing people to find Christ. We probably don't need more churches in LA. Nor do we need more gimmicks...I swear if I hear the words "purpose driven" attached to anymore church buildings...

(Just a side note, my church is doing PD (community) in the fall...oh joy.)

Where are the churches that are embodying the emergent movement, allowing people to encounter Christ and Christ alone.

This is where reform needs to happen. Instead of struggling to keep dying churches alive, why can't we just focus on who we have and how to get them into communion with Christ during their daily lives.

I've heard it said about youth ministry, that we should stop saying the phrase "hey, where is everyone?" when a smaller crowd gathers. Instead we should be thankful for the people who have come and welcome them, affirming that they are the only ones that matter, since they did come. We should be willing to pour everything into those few, instead of asking why there are not more people.

LA is not a spiritually dry place. But we (the church) are definitely not making God and Christ accessible to those who are seeking Christ. Probably because people no longer want to encounter God in church.

I think people are now smart enough (those who truly seek after God) to know that God is not limited to a building on a day, at a time, and in certain clothes. I feel the longing of people wanting to encounter God where ever they go. I sense it in my students. I sense it in non-christians. I hear God telling me to provide a place that is not church. Because God cannot and WILL NOT be contained in a box or a book or a building.

If God is truly the great I AM, then our attention should be in prayer that churches will come to their senses and begin teaching people how to encounter God, instead of how to feel good. Our prayers should echo God's longing for those who drive by our doors on a Sunday morning. Prayers that they might feel the draw of God, enticing them to where he ultimately lives, because the church is ordained as his home. But just like us, his home is for rest and renewal, the work is always done outside, in the world.

I've been registered at freeipods.com since like, FOREVER!!!!!!!
Obviously I don't have the cash to go down to the apple store or anywhere else and just pick one up.

I know I took flack last time I posted about this but, 1 (one), a single person is needed to help a guy out.

Go here. Sign up...finish offer!!!!! So easy. Really. Do a web search, it's not a scam.

I've been cable free since moving out of my mom's pad last year in late August.

Most of the days I don't miss having cable. We have a nice antenna on the roof and we get Fox well so I don't have to worry about missing the Simpons. And there's not much else that I watch except for King of the Hill and maybe a few afternoon cartoons (you're never too old).

I do miss watching G4 (fomerly TechTV, then formerly G4TechTV), and watching the show (formerly) The Screen Savers, (now) Attack of the Show. Just for the record I really liked TechTV and it went craps up when G4 bought them, especially when they let Patrick Norton and Leo Laporte go from The Screen Savers (not to mention Kevin Rose who's a cool guy too).

The other thing I really really miss is The Food Network. Note:I do not miss Emeril.
Since I love to cook, I love to watch cooking shows. (lately I've been watching PBS cooking shows, while good, somethings just quite don't do it)

I mostly miss being able to watch Jamie Oliver on his few shows that air on Food Network. Especially The Naked Chef and Oliver's Twist (and Jamie's Kitchen which is my least fav of his shows).

It's been nice to watch cable tv at the house sitting job this week.

And guess what I'm watching right now?...The Naked Chef...so yummy.

Oh I almost forgot. I don't like reality tv, but there's this new show on Fox called Hell's Kitchen. Pretty good, if only for the cooking aspect. We'll see.


Yes there are 17 links in this post...how many did you click on?

I began reading Tony Jones' book The Sacred Way, (though I bought it 2 weeks before I received a free copy of it at Emergent). And Tony if you read this I totally want to hang out some time, I'll try and catch up with you at NYWC in Sacramento.

Not only is this a great book (I'm only part way through but I can tell already that I'll be using it for the rest of my life), but I've had the unique opportunity to teach from it.

Not that I'm claiming to be an expert at anything in the book. Thought the other night at the Young Adult group that I "lead" (I use lead loosely since I'm not officially recognized as leading the group, it's not part of my job description, I can do it, but it's "extracurricular" < /rant>) I got the chance to teach them how to do lectio divina.

It was nice to be able to get out of the way, in my leadership and in my time with God.

I did not have to tell people where to look in the scripture, I did not have to "lead" a series of questions. I got to simply guide a group of people who had never done lectio before in a close, intimate, personal encounter with God.

By the end everyone was exhausted, which is good, but totally fulfilled due to our experience.

We plan on continuing to do lectio divina in the following weeks. I hope they are able to more and more fully experience the sacred discipline of lectio divina.

FINALLY
The Simpsons MOVIE has been officiall confirmed...at least that it's being made...that's about it.

Sorry about the lack of real posts lately. I'll get back in the swing of things soon.

As you can see, I've done a few more improvements to the blog.

For a while I was quite envious of those using Typepad for their blogs, because they have the function to display the last few comments posted. And we blogger folks couldn't.

But thanks to xtasy on the Haloscan.com forums and the good people (or person) at http://www.bigbold.com/rssdigest/ now you can see the last 10 people's comments.

Enjoy.

If only I could find a way to display the calendar showing what days I posted...oh well...

I'm so fortunate to live in a town who's Fox station shows the Simpsons 3 times a day!!!

Which I'm enjoying right now.

Though I can't believe that I've sat on this info for about a week without sharing it with you, my blogging audience.

Finally we can rest easy. If you're half the Simpsons fan as I am than you already know that Fox finally announced the release date for Season 6 DVDs!!!!!!

I'll be at my local Best Buy (probably there) on August 16th 2005!!!!!!!!!!

Finally...geesh. Takes them forever before they get the next season out. Since they're working on season 17 now for the show, who knows when it'll be (I have my bets on 2045) when they finally have all the seasons out on DVD.

Another Ghetto Blog

In response to my previous post "tragic"

I think I may have presented some ideas that may have been mis-interpreted or I may be completely wrong.

Though I would like to say in response to a few comments, that in no way was I suggesting that people are not allowed to mourn death. People definitely need time to mourn. Though I'm not quite sure, as I stated before, that we should feel cheated. I'm not suggesting that the pain that accompanies death is something we should toss by the wayside. Nor am I saying that loss is easy to deal with.

I think with the language of "cheated" we are saying in a way that God has/had not fully used this person for his purposes. How can that be? God uses everything for his purpose, in some magical mystical way. This is the true mystery of God, embrace his mysticism, for as mystics we begin to more fully know him.

Loss, regret, hope, wonder, pain are all things that stay with us after we find ourselves without something we held dear. These things are natural and a part of the healing process.

I meant more to deal with language surrounding death in the previous post, but I cannot divorce the pain from the language.

If we resign ourselves as slaves to pain, regret, hope, and wonder then we are not allowing God's healing touch to restore our lives.

Once again, I am not saying that we should not deal with these issues, but within the language of God these must not remain, as to hold us down.

I am re-reading the Chronicles of Narnia right now and I am currently on the book Prince Caspian. Here I think is a great illustration of our misconception of "what could have been".

"Yes, wasn't it a shame?" said Lucy. "I saw you all right. They wouldn't believe me. They're all so----"
From somewhere deep inside Aslan's body there came the faintest suggestion of a growl.
"I'm sorry," said Lucy, who understood some of his moods. "I didn't meant to start slanging the others. But it wasn't my fault anyways, was it?"
The Lion looked straight into her eyes.
"Oh, Aslan," said Lucy. "You don't mean it was? How could I-I couldn't have left the others and come up to you alone, how could I? Don't look at me like that...oh well, I suppose I could. Yes, and it wouldn't have been alone, I know, not if I was with you. But what would have been the good?"
Aslan said nothing.
"You mean," said Lucy rather faintly, "that it would have turned out all right-somehow? But how? Please, Aslan! Am I not to know?"

Here's the meat of the passage...

"To know what would have happened, child?" said Aslan. "No. Nobody is ever told that."

And here he continues saying

"But anyone can find our what will happen," said Aslan.

I will repeat what I said previously...God is BIG, and when we live under a BIG God, we allow ourselves to be swept away in the mystery that God is working, even in death, but if we do not change our language to reflect our knowledge of a BIG God then we are not being faithful to live a life that reflects our faith and hope in HIM.

The question remains, whether or not we are willing to follow a God into the unknown of death. We are the ones to remain, for the dead are not led to an unknown, for then they are fully known. It is us who remain walking towards the unknown. When we use language such as "untimely death" or "before their time", we are stating that we know more than we actually do.

Be encouraged and know that God, the great Lion, leads us exactly to where we need to be, emotionally, spiritually, and physically, and sometimes we must venture out by ourselves...though not completely alone, for we remain in the great paws of the Lion.

It turned into one of those nights...but now everyone should be able to use the links!!!!

I started by adding the list of emergent blogs that I'm now following since the convention. (hi to all of you)

That created issues with the drop down menus (that only NON-IE people could use), the issue being that the list was too long and couldn't fully be seen.

All of that led to see if I could make the menus stay on top of the browser and eventually run off the page. But on the way to figure out how to do that I stumbled onto http://sivamdesign.com/scripts/navigate.html which showed me how to create click open menus.

So as you can see all my links are housed on the left (further down than before) and they expand when you click on the major heading exposing all the links below.

Once I had that figured out, since the links used to be on top right under the banner on the left, it kept pushing the top portion further down everytime you expanded a menu. Since content is more important than links, I needed somewhere else to put them where their expansion wouldn't hinder reading. They ended up down and on the left.

I also removed the line about the links not working in IE, since that's fixed now, though I still prefer FIREFOX.

And finally I relocated the counter down to the left as well.

Hope you enjoy the improvements. Leave me a comment as to what you think. (as noted in post below, comments now say "start a conversation")

Quick recap: same page, slightly different layout
use expandable links on left, non hobo-bloggers, quasi-hobo, emergent, links, and recent posts
enjoy

Comming attractions here on Doogie Howser Did It, So Why Not Me:

Book reports on: Brian McLaren's book, A Generous Orthodoxy
and Lauren Winner's book, Real Sex

I've read both of these books and just need to write some thoughts concerning the books.

Also in the next day or so I will have a follow up post to "tragic". After a few comments and discussions with people I want to clear up a few issues.

Please understand that most of what I write here is a starting point for discussion or conversation, hence the comment section of each post. I would encourage more comment especially on this post before I respond futher.

P.S. I've changed the comment link from saying "cogitations?" to "start a conversation".

Last night I was at the park for a free concert, featuring Led Zepagain!!!

Too cool.

While I'm not the biggest Led Zeppelin fan, it was still a cool show.

Fun times with students.

Free Krispy Kreme Dounuts TODAY FRIDAY JUNE 3rd 2005

GET ONE!!!!
My work ... Krispy Kreme (side by side)...YES!!!! (click for maps)

emergent letter

via Doug Pagitt

Lately I've been hearing the phrase "before their time" in reference to people's death. Mainly in the deaths of younger people but also in reference to people in their 50's too. I've even heard the phrase "untimely death".

It seems that the mainstream culture has this idea about what a fulfilling life should be. And even in our Christian-sphere we seem to have misconstrued what a full life is.

Our lives are not our own, we are to be stewards of our lives, but ultimately we are not in control of our lives and our deaths. If we think hard enough about the situation, we would realize that God is the one in control of how "fulfilled" our lives are to be. Meaning that sometimes we can live a full life within a few years, or sometimes it takes many years for our full life to be lived.

This is where the above statements bother me. We have lost our sense of who is really in control here. Why do we lament about a person's life being cut short? Is it because we feel we are being cheated, as if there is a certain allotted time for one to live, and if that expectation is not met then we demand a refund?

Living under a big God, we must remember that he is big, and far bigger than we can fathom. Which means that most often we do not see the whole picture as God sees it. I'm not saying that death of anyone is easy, nor do I say that most likely that person had future potential. I am saying that we are forgetting, when we use statements like "before their time" or "untimely death", that these do not fit into the fabric of God's plan.

Rejoice my friends when someone passes (especially if they knew the Truth). And honor what God has used that person to accomplish, even if it was merely to bring joy to your life for a few months, or to remember the time that the person said a kind word, or take the time to remember all the things they have accomplished. Do not worry about all the things they "could have done", for God has placed all the things they "needed to do", in their right places.

Our vocabulary should reflect the goodness of what God has completed, in his time, not ours.

If one of you ever gets the chance to deliver my eulogy, I would hope that you talk more about what God has used my life for rather than how much more God had to do.

Our futures end with our last breath, while God being infinite, we can place hope in his future knowing that his plans and dreams will someday be lived out.