clean.

this past weekend i accomplished the following tasks:

     -cleaned my bathroom

     -cleaned the dining room

     -caught the dishes up

     -cleaned out my car

and, in the past week, i’ve knocked my email inbox from 430ish down to 284 (still a long ways to go to my goal of 90, but well on my way).  and cleaned out several storage rooms at First Friends.

while the person who randomly stumbles across my office (yet to be cleaned) might not realize it, i enjoy organization.  there’s something about sorting through things and bringing order to chaos that’s strangely satisfying.  

but why should you care about my cleaning habits (unless you’re single, female, & looking for an amicable guy)?  well, because the virtue of sorting things out applies to our souls as much as it does to our spaces.

alleys of kingdom come

Jesus had just started.  he was just getting going.  and some guys came to ask him questions.  his cousin, John, had heard the rumors that Jesus was claiming to be the One.  the One that generations had longed for.  the One that John was wacked out for, living a life so outside the box that people couldn’t help but pay attention.

and so he sent some guys to find out the truth.

they arrive and ask this Jesus character if what they’ve heard is true.  is he the One?!  and Truth answers:

Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.

wait.

that’s not what i was expecting.  if the church today were “the guys,” what would we have told John?  because this seems a bit off message…  

pornifying people

i have spent a lot of time in my life researching pornography.  first as a (seemingly) hopelessly addicted consumer and now as a porn crusader of sorts, bringing what little illumination i can to the dark (but ever-brightening) paths that lead to a sun-drenched freedom.  

so when it was published today that researchers at Princeton had determined that young men objectify women in bikini’s, i can’t say i was particularly surprised.  but i was interested.  it turns out that when men look at images of scantily clad women, their “brain areas associated with handling tools and the intention to perform actions” are activated.  my translation of this is that in some sense women lose the “imago dei” that we’ve all been infused with and become merely steps along a path to self-centered personal pleasure.

puzzling

there’s some premises in life, some concepts that live in a nether region.  cursed with struggle but flooded with goodness.  

hope and love for example.

broken

reading through my journal tonight, working on prepping some talks, i came across this & thought it was worth sharing:

“i spend so much of my life on affirming my worth and pursuing my pleasure, it is incredibly humbling to consider serving One who is, in all ways, the sum of perfection.  the disparity between my sin and his holiness is great than i could conceive or imagine.  the brokenness of my character is greater than i understand.

and so, in this disastrous brokenness, where do i look to with hope?  in what could i ever hope of hoping in?  

only in this One that is outrageously different.  this One, that by his perfection seems so far, is in reality the only hope for me coming close.  close to him, close to life & purpose, close to what i ought to be.”

sled riding

there were so many people at the sledding hill today.  before everyone else from my group arrived, i had 20 minutes or so to sit and watch and here’s what i observed:

something about childish games brings joy back to old bones.

something about brisk air that reinvigorates mundane adults.

today i caught site of children trapped inside adult bodies, seeing them relive their long-distant childhood with a thin piece of plastic and a long, steep, magic covered decent.

weathered men in carharts and camouflage cracking smiles for seemingly the first time across leathery faces. and then the smiles stuck, setting free wrinkles and laughs, cries of joy.

and the young ones, too; they seemed in their prime.  they slid naturally and skillfully, happily and free.

all together, now.  down and down.  first narrowly missing a returning explorer, just below the crest of the lip, hidden from site.  then, a head turns too late to warning cries and it’s a white-washed wipeout.  wild yet wonderful.  

ramps send more than bodies flying, but spirits and adrenaline and mittens and delight all soar together.  

bodies tire and it’s time to move on.  but memories will stay longer than the snow.

curriculum redesign

we’ve just started a series on stewardship titled as seen above.  i’ve never spent a whole month on stewardship before, but i’m excited about how it’s coming together.  whenever i create a lesson for our small groups, i always try to incorporate a leader devotional at the start that speaks straight to the leader, challenging them to start thinking/pondering/ruminating on whatever topic we’re about to tackle.  i thought you might enjoy the one that goes with this month’s lesson and have included it after the jump, as well as a PDF of next Wednesday’s lesson, which incorporates a brand new curriculum design i just finished and am pretty amped about…

Guest Author: Joel Bruerd – Christmas Thoughts

It seems like everyone is (appropriately) taking time to jot down some Christmas thoughts or some advent reflections.  While I’ve had a few cross my mind, I just haven’t had the time to sit down and properly develop them.  However, my good friend, Joel Bruerd, sent these thoughts out this afternoon and they resonated deeply with me.  He was kind enough to let me repost them here…I hope you’ll take a few moments to let our unseen God speak to you…

“Glory to God in the Highest and on earth peace, goodwill to all.”

Here is a slice of an idea…  (no, it’s not a volcano)

Last night I was up to my elbows in oil-y pastels exercising the right side of my brain.  It’s a relatively easy art-form.  For those whose last art class was as a teenager, pastels make a nice re-entry medium for impressionistic sorts of smudges.  Blobs, shapes and smears seem to be the most fun so far.  One drawback is that the colors don’t mix well.
That’s what photoshop is for.

Christmas this year has impressed me with a particular thought and I’ve tried to capture part of the idea with art.  My imagination can run but here’s the thought.

easter thoughts

this one who was risen today is genius. i want to be fully enamored with him. we look at creation and see beauty both intricate and varied. recently i have looked much at those who have surrounded me in life at the present moment…and have seen and experienced emotion; intense, complicated, diverse. surely he who wove all this feeling into his creation is beyond words. just as you can never fully describe any single emotion, so much more can i properly speak of the one who put these feelings into motion at the beginning of time. that we should be people of such diversity…diversity of thought…in even just one day or one hour. joyful, nervous, loving, overwhelmed, stressed, thrilled, exhausted, peaceful, exuberant, broken. and pieced together again. to think that i share these same thoughts with all of humanity, from the beginning of time. on this day, all those years ago, what were they feeling? was it perhaps so much more than could be summed up in words? Creator recreated…and his creation astonished in wonderment. and today awe runs through our veins and floods our thoughts, mixing with our immediate experiences and tinging them toward worship.

playground hierarchies

on a field trip to look at a vegetable garden (isn’t spring exciting?!) the other day, a few friends and i stopped for a bit to watch a playground in action. it’s been some time since i’ve seen a playground in full tilt. there was this constant high pitched screaming sound. it’s not that every kid is screaming constantly…it’s that they take turns, unknowingly, to create this lulling screeching mantra. 

we hadn’t watched long when one kid (we’ll call him tiny tim due to his smaller stature) inadvertently knocked down another (we’ll call him camo king thanks to his flashy camoflage jacket) when exiting a slide. tiny tim desperately tried to make a quick getaway, knowing that trouble was brewing, but camo king’s militia (also sporting camo gear) quickly grabbed him to hold him for the reckoning that was soon to come. of course teachers, playground monitors, and all other big people were nowhere to be found. camo king got his whereabouts and came to collect his revenge just as tiny tim wiggled free and made a bolt for the jungle gym. unfortunately, tiny tim’s limited stride size allowed camo king to quickly catch him and deck him into the dirt. the camo jackets jumped about in joyous celebration. tiny tim struggled to his feet, wanting to fight back. but realizing his disparity in size, he sought the help of a nearby adult who had somehow remained oblivious to the turmoil happening around her. unfortunately camo king and his posse saw this happening and rushed over to plead their case. the result of this judgement seemed unjust to us observers…the outcome with tiny tim headed inside of the school building with the teacher, looking forlorn while camo king and company returned to their terrorist activities amongst the swingset.

we decided it’d be a fascinating study to attach homing beacons to all the students and track them to see how territorial they were, whether they traveled in packs, and what other patterns could be found. we were all convinced that despite the apparent chaotic appearance of the playground, that there was a definite pattern to what takes place during those blessed great moments of the day known as “recess”.