It's Hard to Be Happy

Today is one of those days when it's hard to be happy. I am helping our Kidsprings director take 15 or so kids to a wildlife park today...no that's NOT what makes it hard to be happy. I have two of the best kids in the world that give me every reason to smile. I have a beautiful wife that gets my heart pumping as fast today as she did 20 years ago. I have three great jobs. All is good and I should be happy..but today it's hard.

Last week, I got word that another one of my good friends, and ministry partners, has cancer. I have another good friend who is watching his parents both battle cancer at the same time and this week learned that his wife's father was killed. Today is just one of those days when I sat down at Starbucks with my Shaken Iced Tea Lemonade and wanted to write something fun and exciting, but it's hard.

In my world, hard does not equal impossible though. So, though there is some pain in the offering today, still I will say "Blessed be the Lord." In the middle of difficulties and watching friends suffer, I know that they are not on the journey alone. This morning, I came across these two verses that solidify my hope.

"The churning inside me never stops; days of suffering confront me." (Job 30:27 TNIV)

"But those who suffer he delivers from their suffering; he speaks to them in their affliction." (Job 36:15 TNIV)

"I know that I can cope with the hardships of life and with death because of the hope I have in Jesus Christ." My family and I pray that Father continues to build this virtue into our lives. This is one of those seasons when the hardships of life and with death are right in our faces. We will walk this road in faith - a fully-sighted faith that produces confidence in us because Father has been faithful to others in the past. It doesn't make it easy, but it does make it bearable.

The David Crowder*Band is one of my favorite bands for many reasons, but I think the primary reason is because they write music that is rooted in real life. They are worship leaders that get that life sucks sometimes and we don't have to sugar-coat it, but we also don't have to be paralyzed by it. A Collision was a CD written out of the darkness of loss and tragedy. Remedy brought the Ultimate Hope into focus. On Tuesday, they released their new single - How He Loves. I thought I'd pass along the song and lyrics - listen and be strengthened:

He is jealous for me,

Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,

Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.

When all of a sudden,

I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,

And I realise just how beautiful You are,

And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,

Oh how He loves us,

How He loves us all

He loves us,

Oh how He loves us,

Oh how He loves us,

Oh how He loves.

Yeah, He loves us,

Oh how He loves us,

Oh how He loves us,

Oh how He loves.

We are His portion and He is our prize,

Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,

If His grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.

So Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,

And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,

I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,

When I think about, the way…

He loves us,

Oh how He loves us,

Oh how He loves us,

Oh how He loves.

Yeah, He loves us,

Oh how He loves us,

Oh how He loves us,

Oh how He loves.

Written by John Mark McMillan / Performed by David Crowder*Band on their upcoming "Church Music" CD

Crazy Week

Well, I fully intended to post much earlier than Thursday this week, but things at the Sign Shop have taken up most of my "free" time this week.  It's amazing what backing off of carbonated drinks and caffeine will do to your head also!

I voted and cast my ballot patriotically on Tuesday.  Short line, but it's really interesting that in our age of technology, that I still had to go to four different spots before I could even go to my little voting tent.  It sure would be nice if I could just text my vote in to a number...but not until the 2 hours after the end of the performance...wait, wrong election!

Now the spamming can stop and I'm through posting about the election.  I am reserving one post for next week after we know who our next president will be, but then I'm stopping.

Today I did start a new book.  Well, it's not a new book, but one that will no doubt stir up some great conversations inside my head and/or on this blog.  I am reading The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren.  I have no particular agenda heading into the book.  I know that some of you are already skeptical of him or even of me for even reading this book, but it's not what you first think.  McLaren is not writing a book about some "DaVinci Code" secret about the bib

le or Jesus really being from another planet.  Here is what he says about this "secret message":

"The secret I'm thinking of is more like the kind of rush of insight that comes to you near the end of a really good movie:  you've been confused about something since the very first scene, but suddenly it all comes together.  For many of us, we feel we've been watching the movie attentively, but we haven't gotten to that moment of clarity yet.  We wish it would come."

He doesn't pretend to have it all figured out either, but he does feel like he is on the verge of that moment coming.  I can totally relate to this position.  It's no secret that I carry a certain disdain for the organized church, but I also carry such a fondness for her that I am part of a church plant.  During this part of my journey, I have discovered many things about the church that are simply not biblical, but were very important to the churches I've been a part of.  If that is true for church, the possibility exists that the same is true of our understanding of Jesus.

"What if many have carried on a religion that faithfully celebrates Jesus in ritual and art, teaches about Jesus in sermons and books, sings about Jesus in songs and hymns, and theorizes about Jesus in seminaries and classrooms...but somewhere along the way missed rich and radical treasures hidden in the essential message of Jesus?"

Just the possibility of that being true, pushes me to search more.  I am invigorated by the thought of seeking Jesus again - of digging through the rubble of modernity and post-modernity and traditional and contemporary and liberal and fundamentalism.  I really believe that Jesus was more radical than my picture of him, which in turn should, and will, lead me to think differently and live differently.  I am excited.

Have a great rest of the day and I hope that your Halloween night is filled with candy and a lot of good conversations with neighbors!

Chapter 5 :: Moving Violations

"As I once heard, 'Doing church differently is like rearranging chairs on the Titanic.' We must realize that slight tweaks, new music, creative lighting, wearing hula shirts, shorts and flip-flops won't make doing church more attractive. Church must not be the goal of the gospel anymore. Church should not be the focus of our efforts or the banner we hold up to explain what we are all about. Church should be what ends up happening as a natural response to people wanting to follow us, be with us and be like us as we are following the way of Christ." (p30)

This is the passage that resonated most with me in this chapter. How many times have we looked at our "gospel presentations" and found only an invitation to attend a church. One of the large churches in our country that I have learned a ton from even used it as a strategy - Invite them to a service and we'll take care of the rest! No, no, no! I am not an advocate for cold-sell evangelism strategies, but I do believe that when people look at our lives - personally and corporately - they should see an accurate reflection of Jesus. The way they see that in us is if we invite them to something bigger, something more substantive, something more engaging than a "worship service."

The focus should not be about the show. Cameron and I sat at the Chick today discussing our "Sunday services" and especially this weekend, and our desire is for the gatherings on Sundays to be a result of something more, not an end in themselves. Both can be good and both are needed, but the church has been too preoccupied with themselves on Sunday mornings for too long. I am weary of come-and-see ministries because the "show" is not what is attractive to the people we hope to meet and introduce to Jesus. What appears to be attractive now is the life lived the way Jesus would live - people actually taking seriously the living out of the Christ-life in every place, with everything, every day!

Let's talk now...