Bad Things

I just think sometimes we jump too easily to “human choice” and “evil exists” as explanations for why bad things happen without fully considering the implications of what such a belief means about God and the world we live in.

It’s certainly not very comforting or helpful to tell the person who has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer that this is really a “gift from God.” It’s not helpful to tell the person who has just lost a child in an automobile accident that “this was really God’s will... God has a plan.” Truth is, God weeps and aches for the pain and brokenness we experience and God weeps over the pain we inflict on others. And yet if human choice or random evil is the only explanation we have for why bad things happen, then what we are really saying is that we live in a universe that is in large part out of God’s control.

It’s one sort of problem to wonder what kind of a God might cause such awful things as murder, hurricanes, and cancer. But the alternative is a God who sits on his hands and just lets random stuff happen – a clockmaker God who winds up the machine and lets the world spin out of control and only occasionally intervenes. True, we don't believe God is passive all the time. We think that God is in charge lots of the time, or at least some of the time. But is it really any better to have a God who lapses in and out of involvement in the world?

I think the problem is that we believe God is far more impotent than God really is. We’d rather take the world on our own and deal with our “own” problems and just consult God when we get in a pinch. It cramps our style to bow to a God of the universe who is completely sovereign, wholly loving, and ultimately beyond human understanding.

Kingly Identity

I've been drawn to the story in the paper the last few days about a nurse's aid from Pennsylvania recently crowned king of a small country in Africa. Can you believe it?! One day you're taking orders from a boss, punching a time clock and the next day you're a king! You can read the full story here, but the parallel to the Christian story is remarkable.

Philippians 2 talks about Jesus "being in very nature God" but gave that all up to become a human servant. In other words, Jesus relinquished his rights to the Throne of the Universe to become a human servant of others. The Jesus story of Philippians 2 ends with Jesus re-assuming his rightful royal position but having left an example for us to follow. Paul put it this way, "do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility consider others better than yourselves... your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus." (Philippians 2:3-5)

The Jesus Way is full of upside down logic like this. Jesus says if you want to find yourself, you need to lose yourself. He says the last shall be first. In the Jesus Way the servant way is the kingly way.

Perhaps if I lived with a clearer inner assurance of my true identity as a royal heir of Jesus' kingdom I wouldn't feel so compelled to pound the table and demand my rights. Perhaps if I lived in the daily reality that I am a child of the King, I wouldn't complain so much when I don't get my way.

I suppose it won't be long until Charles Wesley Mumbere's story becomes a Disney movie. And when it does, I'll probably be one of the first in line. In the meantime, I resolve to live more kingly myself - right here in my real life now.

just a fad???

A friend of mine posted this video on his Twitter account today. As an immigrant to the digital world, I continually struggle to speak the language of social media which is native to my children. While I am grateful for the stabilizing influence the church can, and perhaps should, exercise within a dynamically shifting culture, there seems to be a disconnect between the burgeoning world just outside our door and the kinds of conversations we have within. For the last several weeks I've received angry comment cards from a beloved church member about why I still haven't capitalized the word "god" on my "if god twittered" sermon series PowerPoint slides. Before that it was an outcry week after week over why we were using the words "sin and sinners" in the Lord's Prayer rather than "debts and debtors." No wonder the church is increasingly irrelevant to people who haven't grown up within it. Why does the church always seem to be about five steps behind in the conversation?

Director of Young Family Ministries

Another "Josh" is joining our staff team! Just days after securing Josh Young (the husband of our new Associate Pastor) as our Director of Student Ministries, I am pleased to announce Josh Trahan as our Director of Young Family Ministries.

This hire brings to a close a year of transition following Kim Corson's departure in order to pursue PhD. studies at Texas Tech. In the interim, Shannan McFarlane energetically and creatively served as our Interim Director of Children and Family Ministry.

Josh and his wife Courtney have four children ages six, five, three and two. They hail originally from Pensacola, Florida but have spent the last few years in North Carolina where Josh recently completed his Master of Divinity at Campbell University Divinity School.

He is a great match for Clear Lake Presbyterian Church as Josh's desire is to serve a congregation that is "Christ centered, biblically based, and outreach focused." Sounds like us, eh!?

Tim Tam Slam (aka T2Slam)

When I was at Fuller Seminary several weeks ago for one of my Doctor of Ministry classes (my final class, actually!) I met several pastors from Australia. One of the Aussies introduced us to the "Tim Tam Slam." You can do a Google or YouTube search for more information. However, the T2Slam involves biting the ends off of a chocolate wafer cookie (Tim Tam - available only in Australia) and then sucking hot coffee or hot chocolate into the cookie like a straw. As soon as the liquid comes through the cookie you slam the wafer into your mouth before it dissolves. When you do, there's a veritable explosion of flavor in your mouth. (Well, not really, but it sounds more appealing if I put it that way.)

So, this Aussie woman who taught us the Tim Tam Slam sent me two boxes of cookies to use with the church staff. Today was the day. We all did the T2Slam before our staff meeting and devotions. What a hoot!

Can't wait to welcome our new staff members, Rachel and Josh. Maybe I'll have to get some pix of them doing the Tim Tam Slam!!

Real Beauty

The highlight of my day was visiting an elderly home-bound member of our congregation. Her body was crippled and her speech slow from a stroke, or a series of strokes, years ago. Her mind, however, was sharp and crisp.

Scattered throughout this tiny apartment in the assisted living facility she calls home were pictures of children, grandchildren, and of her beloved husband Bill. It's been more than nine years since he passed away - nine years since she was held in his arms. They were married in 1946 when she was just a freshmen in college.

It was the way she talked about him now, in the present, that struck me. She kept saying over and over "Oh, how I love Bill... I love Bill so much."

In my world obsessed with appearance and in a culture that idolizes youth, I saw real beauty today in the life of this woman. Thank you Sarah for that gift.

Great Airports of the World...not

“Great Airports of the World is not a book that you’ll find on anyone’s coffee table,” Reggie McNeal said yesterday.

I’m at Fuller Seminary taking a class called “Missional Leadership” with Reggie McNeal as part of my Doctor of Ministry degree program. Yesterday Reggie was talking about how the shift between being an internally verses externally focused church is all about the destination.

Airports are not doing their job when airplanes and people are trapped in the terminal. After all, no one hops on a plane to take a trip to an airport! We use airports to get to the places we want to work, play or meet certain people. That’s why no one will ever make one of those fancy coffee table picture books called Great Airports of the World. Airports are not the destination.

In a “church-centric” (vs. “kingdom-centric”) view of the Christian life, the institutional church is understood as the destination. In this view, the objective is to see how many people we can get to come to our church. And so we create programs and jazz up worship to attract the crowd. A kingdom-centric view of the Christian life understands that God is establishing a kingdom on earth and God is using the church to accomplish it. As others have said, “The church does not have a mission. The mission has the church.”

A friend of mine at our church said to me the other day. “Steve, I used to think the point was to try and get people into our church. Now I think the point is to get people out of our church!” My friend Josh isn’t looking to get rid of cantankerous church members. Rather, he understands that the church is in the service of our great missionary God who has a mission to bless and redeem the world God loves.

Can't drink enough coffee

I'm having one of those mornings when I can't seem to drink enough coffee. My mind feels groggy and my body slow. I keep pumping caffeine in hopes that more synapses will connect. (Which means this probably isn't a great time to be blogging to the world. Who knows what I might end up writing!?)

Memorized Scripture works a similar sort of wonder on the synapses of my soul. Memorizing Bible passages doesn't come easy to me and my personal catalog of mentally accessible Scripture remains painfully thin. However, I can't deny the effect that Scriptural java has on my being. When my soul is groggy, confused or fearful, pumping Colossians 3 or Hebrews 12 (my java du jour) into the veins of my spirit has a way of bringing me to life. Drawing from memorized passages like these (passages, more than just singular random verses) quickens me to another reality in a way that just reading them from the Book does not. Routinely drinking in old favorites like Psalm 23 and the Lord's Prayer feeds my dependence on the Jesus life.

Here's to waking up and smelling the coffee! (My deepest apologies to all you tea drinkers out there...)

Spiritual formation looks like this

Here's the video we showed in worship last Sunday.
(Click here: God's Chisel)

How is this like or unlike what you experience in relationship with God?

Why it hurts

I just got back from Makenzie Stocker's funeral... it's funny how that word "funeral" sticks on my fingers as I type. The service was more of a worship event than it was like any sort of "funeral" I've been to before.

For those who don't know, Makenzie Stocker was a promising young ballerina (18 years old) who died in a car accident last Wednesday night. (She's the granddaughter of our choir director and the daughter of a new and dear friend to me personally.) More than a promising dancer, however, Kenzie was a beautiful daughter of God and unashamed follower of Jesus Christ.

One of the things that struck me today (in addition to the hundreds upon hundreds that attended the service) was a quote shared by one of Makenzie's teachers during his 'remembrance.' It's from C.S. Lewis' Four Loves:

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket — safe, dark, motionless, airless — it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell."

One of the things that troubles me at funerals is all of the curious platitudes we slip off to one another in an effort to avoid the brokenness of our hearts. And then we don't stop at that - we start putting the same words on the lips of God such that he becomes a sort of numb and distant deity who doesn't really have a clue about what life down here is like.

Nothing could be farther than the truth.

I'm glad that the same creator and sustainer of the universe of which Paul speaks in Colossians 1:15-20 is the same One who joins the uncontrollable sobbing outside the tomb of his friend Lazarus (John 11). Ours is a God who loves and in doing so has become vulnerable.

Perhaps in our effort to "get over" grief and help others do the same, we race past a God who would weep along with us in the brokenness of his own heart?

Thanks Lutheran South Academy teacher, whoever you were, for allowing me permission to stand in the mess of my grief and in doing so to be met by God.

Dealing with Guilt

Speaking of guilt... Have a look at this video.

Canine Apologies

I'm really sorry I haven't blogged for a while. The longer I went without blogging the more pressure I felt to have something profound to say once I actually did blog... but the profundity never came. That is until the other night when I was tossing my dog ice cubes.

Doogle (the dog) loves ice cubes. Anytime he hears me rustling in the freezer he comes running for an ice cube. On command (he has me well trained) I tossed him one. Only this time I missed. It was just a bad toss. He deftly compensated for my error and caught the ice cube. And I said, "Sorry Doogle."

My 14 year old son was watching the whole thing. "Dad," he said, "do you ever wonder why we tell our dog 'sorry?'" I was caught. Busted. Apologizing to a canine.

Which brings me back to my original apology for not blogging in a while... Am I really? Sorry, that is. Or is that just the polite thing to say? Surely an apology can never be out of order, can it? Even if it is an apology to a dog?

The Houston Chronicle ran a story this morning entitled "Remorseful note near League City hit & run victim." 34-year old Maurice Jones was found dead Sunday morning after an apparent hit & run. Next to the victim was an 'I'm sorry' note left by driver. "If you hit somebody's car you apologize, but when you kill a person that's a totally different story," said the mother of the victim.

For Christians next week marks the culmination of the season we call Lent. Lent is a time of personal and corporate reflection about the things we are sorry for. On Good Friday I'll stare at the cross and ponder my own guilt for another man's death.

I wonder what I'll say...?

Elvis is dead, but Billy Graham is not

Okay, in my message this week at the 11:15 service I made mention of the "late" Billy Graham. Strangely, at the previous two worship services (Saturday night and Sunday morning) I never said anything like that. Why I suddenly couldn't remember if Billy Graham was actually still with us, I really don't know! I think I just panicked... Sorry. I am grateful for those who gently pointed out my error. For the rest, you'll be glad to know I have carefully researched the matter and Billy Graham is very much still alive.

For those who were interested in the John Piper quote. It comes from his book Hunger for God (Crossway, 1997) pp. 14-15. I have not read the book, but apparently you can download it here. I think I might just have to check it out!

A book I have recently finished which is worth your time is Darrell Guder's Missional Church. The book is ten years old and was among those I've thought I should read "someday." I'm sorry I waited. "Missional" is all the buzz these days. Missional Church is the work that got everyone thinking.