Never Give Up

Personal News
My family had a great time in Topeka, and now find ourselves at my parents' home in beautiful Pella, IA. If my extended family can just get over a stomach bug and not share it with my family, we should have a great time!

Personal Thoughts
My brother and I just watched the end of the Insight Bowl with Texas Tech and Minnesota. When we first popped the game on, the score was 38-10, Minnesota on top.

Much to our amazement and delight, we watched Texas Tech battle back from 31 points down to tie the game on a career-high 52 yard field goal, and then win the game in overtime, 44-41. Absolutely amazing.

I told my brother that had we started watching the game from the beginning, I would have turned it off. I wasn't interested in a blow-out. Yet in the on-field, post-game interview, the Texas Tech coach said that he believed even at halftime down by 28 that his team could win. To him it wasn't a blow out. To him it was an opportunity for his team to shine.

What a great reminder. If you believe in what you are doing, never give up. No matter what anyone else says (even those who tune you out), keep doing what you are called to do.

Santa from an Engineer's Perspective

Personal News
We arrived in Topeka today. Even though we got off an hour later than we had hoped (T seemed to be on his own schedule) we made excellent time because T ate like a champ and we could hop back in the car after only a 30 minutes stop and take off again. And all combined - he probably only cried 10 minutes total in the 6 and a half hours we were actually inside the van. Not bad considering how much he hates his car seat!

Personal Thoughts
I've seen this before, but thought I'd share it with all of you in case one or two of you haven't seen this humorous bit of info. I just re-read it at Mark Batterson's blog and thought it would bring a laugh or two over at my blog, so here you go!

There are approximately 378 million Christian children in the world according to the Population Reference Bureau. At an average census rate of 3.5 children per household that comes to 108 million homes, presuming that there is at least one good child in each.

Santa has about 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west. This works out to 967.7 visits per second. This is to say that for each household with a good child, Santa has around 1/1000th of a second to park the sleigh; hop out; jump down the chimney; fill the stockings; distribute the remaining presents under the tree; eat whatever snacks have been left for him; get back up the chimney; jump into the sleigh; and get on to the next house.

Assuming that each of these 108 million stops is evenly distributed around the earth which, of course, we know to be false, but will accept for the purposes of our calculations, we are now talking about 0.78 miles per household--a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting bathroom stops or breaks. This means Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second--3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second, and a conventional reindeer can run at best 15 miles per hour.

The payload of the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium sized Lego set weighing two pounds, the sleigh is carrying over 500,000 tons, not counting Santa himself. On land, a conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that the flying reindeer could pull ten times the normal amount, the job can't be done with nine of them--Santa would need 360,000 of them. This increases the payload, not counting the weight of the sleigh, another 54,000 tons, or roughly seven times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth, the ship not the monarch.

Six hundred thousand tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance--this would heat up the reindeer in the same fashion as a spacecraft re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer would absorb 14.3 quintillion joules of energy per second each. In short, they would burst into flames almost instantaneously. The entire reindeer team would be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second, or right about the time Santa reached the fifth house on his trip.

Not that it matters, however, since Santa, as a result of acceleration from a dead stop to 650 miles per second in one-thousandth of a second, would be subjected to centrifugal forces of 17,500 g's. A 250 pound Santa which seems ludicrously slim would be pinned to the back of the sleigh by 4.3 millions pounds of force, instantly crushing his bones and organs and reducing him to a quivering blob of pink goo.

Therefore, if Santa did exist, he's dead now.

Merry Christmas from the Birdnest

Here is our 2006 Christmas Letter for you to enjoy.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I Hate Church Lists

Why is it that some Christians and organizations feel the need to rate churches and pastors on various lists. There's the 50 Most Influential Churches list, the 100 Fastest Growing Churches list, and now we get the 25 Most Innovative Churches.

Lists like these only serve to draw comparisons, to raise pastors to Christian-Culture icon status (even if they don't want it), and to create copycat churches. I'm all for learning from other churches, founding out how different local churches are affecting their communities, how various church bodies are reaching people with the good news about Christ, and being inspired by other church families that are doing great things for the Kingdom. But I don't need the comparing, the rating, the worldly approach to gathering this helpful information.

I just struggle so much to imagine Jesus putting together a list like this. Even in the Book of Revelation when Christ talks directly to 7 different churches, he doesn't compare them to one another, he addresses them individually on their own merits and confronts them straight up.

I encourage you as a young adult to not engage in church comparisons (or pastor comparisons for that matter). It's hard, but it's not fair. Each local church (and pastor) is accountable to God, and each is reaching different people in different ways and expressing worship of God differently. Let the world have their lists to argue about, and let's live differently as Christ-followers.

History of World Religions in 90 seconds

I'm not exactly sure how accurate this is, but the little bit I know of the spread of world religions corresponds with this 90 second Flash movie from Maps of War. I found it a bit fascinating and thought a few of you might also.

Thanks to Church Relevance for the link.

I guess everybody really is doing it...

I saw this news article from ABC News saying that 9 out of 10 people have sex before marriage. The thinktank that conducted the surveys concluded that abstinence education is a waste of money since everyone seems to be giving their bodies before giving a ring, even those from more "chaste" generations.

First, I think it should be openly noted that the group that conducted the research went into the survey with a bias. While they would not say this, they pretty much view people as animals who can't help themselves in the sexual arena, and so we must educate these animals in how to have "safe sex" that won't spread AIDS and other STDs since they have such high sexual appetites (er, excuse me... "needs"...). They would identify me as a "religious moralizer" who they perceive as making matters worse by telling people to wait until marriage for sexual activity and then to remain faithful to your spouse.

In their defense, they do seem to have the statistics to back up their claims. On one page on their site, they refer to other studies showing that 80% of HIV-infected women in south India were monogamous and 25% of HIV-infected women in Rwanda have only had one sex partner their whole life - their husband.

But their conclusion is that "Promoting abstinence or faithfulness as the only ways to prevent HIV transmission will leave millions of people without the ability to protect themselves from infection."

How can someone get HIV if they are abstaining from sex? How can a married couple get AIDS if both stay faithful? But it is assumed that everyone is going to have sex anyway (such we are just animals), so we need condoms in and out of marriage and medicine for those infected who will keep being sexually active.

This makes me so sad. This is living life at the minimum. We are missing out by taking these short cuts to intimacy. God has a MUCH better plan for our lives.

Sex is beautiful. It was created by God, not only for reproduction, but for enjoyment, bonding, emotional health, and so much more. The Scriptures are FULL of this message. But when we give our bodies to someone that we haven't committed to by exchanging vows before God and witnesses, we aren't able to FULLY enjoy, to FULLY bond, to FULLY be healthy. Which leaves us below the maximum and truly missing out on God's blessing.

I have seen this play out over and over and over with countless numbers of young adults. And not just with young adults who grew up in church hearing this message. I've seen the pain that premarital sex has had on the hearts of even non-Christians who have bought into the cultural mantra of "sex is okay between consenting adults". They engaged in premarital sex because the temptation was so strong, they longed to feel loved, and hey - everybody's doing it anyway...

As seen in the article, some may discount the 95% statistic in the survey referenced above because of the bias of the survey's conductors, but I'll give Guttmacher their statistic because it is irrelevant to me. Even if 100% of all teens and adults had sex before marriage doesn't mean that 100% are enjoying the best for their lives. It could be possible that those people are living at the minimum and not enjoying the maximum that God calls them to and wants to give them.

Yes, the draw to sex is extremely powerful for most people. But I WANT to want sex with my wife. I want to want her and I want her to want me. So thank God for the sexual desire in mankind! It is a beautiful thing. It's just too beautiful to give to someone who isn't your spouse. As someone who belongs in the 5% who never engaged in sex before marriage, I don't regret one minute of my decision to wait. It was hard - but it was worth it.

P.S. If you have already engaged in premarital sex and realize that you aren't living life at God's wonderful maximum, take heart. The cross of Christ can renew you and let you enjoy the blessing of His maximum!

Schwartzkopf on Leadership

Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy. (Gen. Norman Schwartzkopf)

Thanks to Chroma for the quote.

Merry Riskmas

Here's a great (and humorous) short article from Phil Callaway about his risk-taking son.

I wonder what risks God will ask us to take in 2007...

Judging a brother or sister...

I just got done about an hour ago with a conversation with a great gal from my church who has been feeling like others are excluding her - juding her as not being good enough to be in their inclusive group. She realizes that most of it is probably just her perception, but she still feels it nonetheless. We talked and prayed about it together and I think she left with hope.

Then just moments ago I somehow find this excellent blog about judging others, especially those within the Church that view ministry differently or dress differently or behave differently than us. I thought this was a fantastic post, and even though it is almost a month old, I thought it beared repeating.

(And for those who didn't't know (like me), Ned Flanders is the Christian character on the Simpsons).

Thanks to Gary Lamb for pointing this post out to me.

Congratulations (and Thank You's)

Thank you, thank you. Thank you very much. For this award, I would first like to thank God for giving mankind brains to come up with the technologies that allow us to shape culture through the use of the Internet. I would also like to thank Apple for making my PowerBook so I could connect to the Internet and type my thoughts. like to thank Blogger for providing me with the platform to publish my thoughts to the Internet public, to YouTube for the videos that let me catch news items that I might have missed (or videos that give me a laugh!), to Kim Pagel for encouraging me to blog so I could share in this award with him and all of you, and to all the little people who didn't act little, but acted big and made the biggest impact in 2006 (according to Time).

And that brings me to the other half of this post. Congratulations to you as well as being a recipient of this year's Person of the Year award. I hear that if you pick up a copy of this week's Time Magazine that you even will see your picture on the cover. I would enjoy seeing that, however I'll be too busy looking at myself on the cover. After all, it's not often I win such a prestigious award as this.

Worldview Lessons

I got the following article in my weekly Relevant Leader email. I thought it had good lessons that we as young adults could learn, so I'm posting it here.

(By the way, not only did I learn some of these same principles during my time in Venezuela, but I also learned them elsewhere in life as well. So you don't have to go overseas in order to learn the three lessons below!)

Many Christians in America tend to trip up on the issue of worldview. Many have little awareness of what worldview is, how it works, what the major worldviews are or how the biblical worldview differs from other alternatives. In most cases this is true whether the Christians in question consider themselves to be radical, liberal, revisionist, moderate, conservative or fundamentalist! It seems that the only people who do have a good grasp of worldview issues are missionaries or others involved in cross-cultural business or church planting. Which brings me to my passage to India. I've been in India twice, each time for about three months. While there I learned some important worldview lessons. Worldview Lesson #1 I had just landed in Bombay (now Mumbai) and was out and about seeing the sights. On my second day I went to a mosque on a tiny island that sits in the middle of the bay. While I was on the island, a fellow there befriended me and offered to show me around. I took him up on his offer. He showed me around all right, and when I was distracted, he stole my camera and case. Obviously, this really bummed me out. How could I have been so stupid? Then I started talking to some people and discovered I wasn't the first one. Others' stories of how they had been conned or had stuff stolen became a fascinating window into a whole new way of thinking. Having grown up in suburbia, I was not streetwise, especially to foreign big cities. It was my time to get educated. Lesson learned: The Indian Christians comforted me through this and taught me that you can be both guarded and open at the same time. This real-world, school-of-hard-knocks experience taught me something about discernment into human nature, about the difference between perception and reality and about learning from others' experiences. Worldview Lesson #2 The Christians I met in India showed me how Christians can relate to a vastly complex and pluralistic culture. In India, underneath the "formal" non-biblical religions lurks animism—the belief in many gods and spirits who must be appeased or pleased to make life livable. On top of that you've got Hinduism (actually a complex of religions), Islam (which itself has radically different expressions), Buddhism, Jainism and Sikkhism, Zoroastrianism (the Parsees) and Maoist secularism. My Indian Christian friends taught me that no matter what denomination or branch of Christian faith a person might come from—they are "Christians," period. They aren't to be thought of as pagans, unbelievers, infidels, aliens, enemies or traitors. Lesson learned: In India, Christians of whatever stripe have more in common with each other than with the other religions being practiced all around them. Indian Christians see things this way partly as a result of being a small and persecuted religious minority in a nation that is dominated by a not-always-tolerant majority religion. But their unique setting and experience enables Indian Christians to understand an essential New Testament principle that is harder for Christians in the West to grasp: spiritual unity in Christ (see John 17:20-21). Worldview Lesson #3 My Indian Christian friends taught me that theologies need to be corrected by cross-cultural insights, otherwise they become culturally blinded and insulated. God intended Christian faith, to the ends of the earth, to be incredibly diverse, reaching into every culture, transforming it to the glory of God and preserving the best of each culture. Christians have much to learn from other cultures. God is the creator of the vast diversity—and wants the best for all cultures. Christian theology in the West needs to be corrected by Eastern Christian theology, and vice versa. Christian theology dominated by countries in the Northern Hemisphere need to hear from Christians in the Southern Hemisphere, and vice versa. No Christian group has the absolute final word about what Christian faith is—only God does. But we can rejoice in the white-hot core of Christian faith that all Christians have affirmed through the ages.

Bayard Taylor is the author of Blah, Blah, Blah: Making Sense of the World's Spiritual Chatter (Bethany House).

Christmas Music

With Christmas music all over the airwaves, in stores, and pumping out of MP3 players worldwide, I thought I'd share my favorite Christmas CD. It is very unlike any other Christmas CD I've ever heard.

Andrew Peterson's Behold the Lamb of God was introduced to me last year before he came to Cedar Rapids in concert. LeAnn and I worked at the Compassion Table, and so got to go to the conference for free. The CD tells the Christmas story through song, but instead of starting with the angel appearing to Mary, it actually starts with the Passover. It has some deeply beautiful and moving songs on it. It has a fun song on it (check out Matthew's Begats). It has a couple of instrumental Christmas numbers (with hammer dulcimer!). It has guest singers (so it isn't about Andrew, but rather about the One who was born). The CD isn't just Christmas music - it is an experience.

Right now, you can listen to the whole album online on Andrew's site. Just click "Open Player" and enjoy!

Devotion 2

In light of my recent post on Devotion, I have one question. How can you NOT be devoted to kids like these?


Man, I love my family!

P.S. This picture was taken Sunday afternoon. It was Tsion's first time in the Exersaucer, and the whole family celebrated!

Reminder of the Day

Don't ignore email for 5 days.

Online file conversion

As a wanna-be graphic artist/web designer, I loved finding this site:

Zamzar - free online file conversion

Haven't used it yet, but look forward to the day I need it!

Exmas and Crissmas

For the past two Sundays, Eric Thompson has led the 12:30@Eleven community (meets at 11:00 am in Room 137 at New Covenant) in a lively discussion about Christmas. I've kept quiet (because I've noticed when pastors speak up, some people take their word as final, and thus discussion ends. So to encourage others to talk, I don't. :o), but have enjoyed batting the conversation around in my own head.

The first week we read an article by a Christian who thinks Christmas should be eliminated as a nationally recognized holiday. I felt the article was poorly written and thought out. Even if the government didn't make Christmas a recognized holiday, offices stayed open, and the post office delivered mail, I still think there would be a lot of the stress of the season she thinks would disappear. The celebrations of this time of year are just too entrenched right now in our culture.

But it doesn't matter to me if the government calls off Christmas or not. I would still celebrate that Jesus came to earth. I would still ponder the mystery of God becoming human. I would still give gifts to my kids (they each get three gifts from me and LeAnn - a "gold" gift that is "expensive" (on our budget that isn't that much!), a "frankincense" gift designed to help them spiritually this next year, and a "myrrh" gift that is practical for life). We would still decorate a tree because it is so much fun to do together as a family. And we would probably still host our annual Christmas Open House. That was the author's overall point, though. Would Christians still celebrate if the federal government didn't give us the day off?

Then this past week Eric read us a C.S. Lewis essay/parable about Exmas and Crissmas. I thoroughly enjoyed the piece and encourage you to read it. I found it amazing that Lewis probably wrote this around 50 years ago about Christmas in England, and yet it is still so true, at least here in America. Having kids has helped us remember to keep in perspective what Christmas is really all about. We had a good little discussion last night during our weekly family night after watching "A Charlie Brown Christmas" since Charlie Brown yells "Can anybody tell me what Christmas is really all about?!"

And in case you've forgotten yourself, here is what Linus answers Charlie Brown's question with:

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
"Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." (Luke 2:1-20)

Devotion

While preparing for a Bible study last week (Route66 at New Covenant at 6:30 pm for those who are looking for a college/young adult group to get involved with) I ran across the following story:

"If somebody offered you $2 million, could you give up sports for two years?" This was the question a sports radio station recently asked its listeners. No games on TV, radio, or in person. No sports page. no ESPN highlight films. No Tuesday morning arguing about Monday Night Football. One fan phoned in and said no, he would definitely not give up sports, not even for $25 million. "It's where I turn when I pick up the paper in the morning," he said. "It's where I go when I'm on the Internet. It's what I watch on television. It's what I listen to on the radio in the car. Everywhere I go, it surrounds everything I do."

When I first read that, I didn't like it. How could someone be so addicted to sports? I mean, I enjoy watching a football game on TV, going to the Kernels stadium, wishing someone would give me tickets to an Iowa wrestling meet, playing tennis, or dreaming what life would be like if I actually had ESPN at home. But not give it up for two years for $2 million? I think I would be able to give up just about anything for $2 mil.

But then it hit me - what couldn't I give up for the highest sums of money? Immediately I thought "My family and my God." There is no WAY I could give them up for even two weeks, let alone two years

How about you? What are you devoted to? Are you living right now in such a way that no amount of money could make you give up your faith or your important relationships? What is it that you can say "everywhere I go, it surrounds everything I do"?

Not again...

When LeAnn and I lived in Colorado, I served as the worship director for a new church plant called Pinecrest Community Church. The mother of our volunteer youth leader/bass player was one of the secretaries at Grace Chapel. Through this, we developed good relationship with Grace Chapel. They donated some items to help us one time. One of their associate pastors guest spoke at our church one Sunday while our senior pastor was out of town. I had a lot of respect for Grace during our 3 years in the Denver area.

Just moment ago, I learned that Paul Barnes, their senior pastor (who was also the founding pastor), has resigned because he has admitted to a struggle with homosexuality his entire life. And this comes just a month after he spoke about integrity in the wake of the Ted Haggard scandal. Apparently someone called the church because they overheard a conversation of someone who was going to "out" Paul. So rather than Paul seeking help on his own, an anonymous phone call brought the truth to light.

If you are struggling with an habitual sin, I urge you to please find someone to confess your sin to. Get help. Don't let your sin find you out - you overtake the sin by confessing it to God and to another human who will love you and pray for you and support you through your healing.

And I also encourage you to live your life in such a way that others will be comfortable opening up to you. If you wear a mask yourself or slander others behind their back, no one is going to want to confess to you. It broke my heart to read the words of one of the elders of Grace Chapel - "Where did I fall short in making myself so unapproachable that he couldn't come to me?" So even if you aren't living with a secret sin, still seek to be a person of godly character.

"But godliness with contentment is great gain." 1 Timothy 6:6

Happy 60th, Dad!

Today my dad turns 60 years old. We surprised him with a celebration the day after Thanksgiving (LeAnn and I gave him a NET Bible - First Edition for personal study as he prepares for the Sunday School class he teaches at his church - I highly recommend it!) and he is spending his birthday in a MUCH warmer climate (hope you are enjoying Arizona, Mom and Dad!).

I am very proud to be the son of Larry Bird. I like to brag that while my dad is a foot shorter, 10 years older (almost to the day!)and not near as rich as the basketball star, my dad is WAY nicer (Disclaimer: I've never met the basketball Larry, but even if I did, I'd still think my dad is tops!). I love being a father to my 4 kids, and I think it is because my father was such a great dad to me (and I think my brother would say the same thing). I am so thankful for the legacy he started for our family, and I am proud to continue that on for my kids.

Happy 60th Birthday, Dad! I love you!

Extravagance

I was reading in my MacAddict magazine this morning while eating my scrambled eggs and came across their "drool worthy" page (and I quote: "sexy stuff we can't wait to get our hands on"). Usually they have things like huge TVs, or fancy iPod accessories, or other cool, interesting, rarely seen gadgets. Well this time I saw this digital camera.

My first thought when I saw it: "What a lavish waste! Cameras get used and scratched and dinged - how extravagant to give a camera a gold case with diamond studs around the lens!"

But then the thought hit me - why do I not have the same reaction about gold jewelry as I do about this gold camera? Isn't jewelry just as "extravagant"? (I looked up extravagance in my Mac's built in Oxford Dictionary and it said that extravagance is "excessive elaborateness of style".)

I fear that sometimes people will spend more money for items like this gold camera or a gold necklace to try and increase their personal "worth". Minox has the same camera in a typical digital camera case that is quite a bit cheaper, but many people will buy the Carat camera simply to gain the attention of others, which they think will make them "better".

But this camera's beauty will fade. It won't bring the same sense of satisfaction in a few years. New and better cameras will hit the market. And eventually people will see the real you hiding behind your "extravagant" toys and possessions. And when that happens, will they like what they see? Or for that matter, will you like what you see?

With that said, there is another thing bothering me about this camera. Having just posted about young adults in debt, seeing things like this camera angers me a bit because I know there will be some young adult somewhere who will buy into the myth that he or she will be happy with a camera (or any product) like this, and it will only steep them deeper in debt, keeping them enslaved even longer. I'm a typical male in the fact that I love gadgets, especially ones with a high cool factor, but not at the cost of my financial freedom.

So many books, so little time...

About a year ago, a couple of area pastors came to talk with me about college ministry in Cedar Rapids. Upon entering my office, one of them commented that I needed more bookshelves. He was right - I have books piling up, many of which I know I will never get to. And it's gotten worse since he visited!

I just read a great article over at Church Relevance that said that a new book is published every 30 seconds. I LOVE books, but no matter how hard I try, at that rate I will never be able to read all of the ones I want.

The Church Relevance article gives some great advice on picking what to read as part of your "continuing education". It challenged me to consider more carefully what books I choose to give my time to.

And I encourage you to not be like 58% of the population that never read another book after high school graduation!

In debt to the bank and mom...

ABC News has an article about 20-somethings moving back in with their parents because of the amount of debt they are carrying. This brings several thoughts to mind:

1) Moving in with mom and dad could be a good thing or a bad thing.

I remember when LeAnn and I graduated from JBU. We had plans to go with TEAM to Venezuela and work at Christiansen Academy. We needed to raise our own funds in order to go, and so to save money, we lived with LeAnn's folks in Topeka, KS. It was a great situation because LeAnn and I respected her folks, their household, and made an effort to help with the maintenance of the home (meals, cleaning, yard work, etc.). It also worked because LeAnn's parents respected us as a family and allowed us to make our own decisions in matters that concerned us.

But without the mutual respect and love for one another, I don't think it would have been a good situation. We had only been married one year when we moved in with them. We had strange jobs and hours. We were poor and didn't pay rent (which was what they wanted as a way to help us get to Venezuela faster).

I think many young adults need to think twice before moving back in with their parents (and the parents need to think twice before allowing it). Do you, as a young adult, have a plan for the next year? When do you plan to move out? Can you respect your parents and the culture of their home? Are you willing and capable of helping with the functioning of the household? Will you approach the situation more as a servant than as the adult child of your parents?

2) Debt. According to the article, the main reason these young adults are moving back in with Ma and Pa is because of debt, which is usually from college loans. This is why good financial decision making is such a necessity - and even needs to begin in high school. If you do not have debt, I encourage you to do everything you can to stay out of it. If you do have debt, I encourage you to have an aggressive plan to get out. Sacrifice that nicer car. Sacrifice the toys (i.e. video games, bikes, skis, IPod, etc. for guys - shoes, clothes, movies, IPod, etc. for the girls (and forgive me for the stereotypes!)). Heck, sacrifice the Starbucks for breakfast, the Panera for lunch, and the Olive Garden for dinner (and Perkins late night). Get aggressive and get rid of the debt. You will be so much freer when you are out of debt and will have so much more to give.

3) Identity. Moving in with the P's can mess with a 20-something's identity. It is important for a young adult to learn who they are as God has made them to be. Sometimes parents can project their wishes and desires on to the young adult. Or it can be considered "shameful" to still live at home in some circles. And so if you find yourself a 20-something living at home, please respect your parents, but pursue the identity God has for you. Find out what YOU are passionate about, what YOU are skilled at, who YOU are as a man or a woman.

4) Motivation. It has been my experience to meet many young adults who, as back-home live-ins, lack the motivatation to get their own place and establish their own identity. They often struggle to find work, or go to school, or find a better job, or find healthy relationships with peers. If debt is involved, it can be even more overwhelming and squelch whatever motivation may have been hiding in the mind. If you find yourself in this situation, I encourage you to stay motivated to get out on your own, and establish yourself. God wants us to be givers and contributors, and if you remain an unmotivated home-slug, you aren't living in sync with God's heartbeat.

So those are my thoughts on 20-somethings living back at home with large debt. What are yours?
-E

Mean and selfish young adults

I just read on the Catalyst blog that according to the Barna Research group young adults are more likely to break behavioral boundaries in cultural, social, and spiritual areas than their parents' generation. The quote at the end of the post really stood out to me:

Barna’s David Kinnaman notes, “The research shows people’s moral profile is more likely to resemble that of their peer group than it is to take shape around the tenets of a person’s faith.”

I find myself with several things rattling around in my head after reading this.

#1. I hope it's not true. But I fear that it is.

I recently taught a group of parents soon to have out-of-high-school children about preparing their kids for life as an independent young adult. I used material from Paul Stanley (who works with the Navigators) about the different life stages people go through. For the 18-30 group, he says that THE question they are seeking to internally answer is "Who Am I?" This question naturally leads someone to live life slightly more selfishly because they aren't 100% sure of who they are as designed by God, and so they seek experiences and feedback in life that will help to answer this question.

As I have worked with young adults now for almost 5 years (and I fear to say this since many of them will read this) I have seen this to be true. MANY of the decisions they make come from a self-centered viewpoint ("what do I get out of this") than from an others-centered viewpoint ("how will this benefit others"). Often marriage helps in adjusting this, but not always. To be fair, ALL people live life with a bit of selfishness, including myself. But on a stereotypical level, this seems to be more true of 20 and 30-somethings than of the generations ahead of us.

Which brings me to my next thought...

#2. Is this a generational difference that Barna is pointing out or a life stage difference?

Barna makes it seem to be a generational thing, almost as if to say "people over 40 are better than people in their 20s and 30s" But I think Stanley would say it is a life stage thing - and I am inclined to lean that direction myself (but willing to admit the power of peer pressure might lend to these survey results which makes it a generational thing).

If the primary internal question people in their 20s and 30s wrestle with is "who am I?", then people in their 40s and 50s wrestled with that same question twenty years ago. And chances are they too bent their morals during that time of life in order to search and test who they really were. Life experience has helped them see that lying doesn't help, that profanity reveals a weaker mind, gossip comes back to haunt you, and more along the same lines. Plus, they've been answering the question "who am I?" and have moved on to different internal life stage questions. So they change throughout life, coming to the point that they are now.

If this is the case, then I expect in twenty years we'll see similar results in a similar survey from the Barna Group. But if it is a generational thing, then I expect we'll see 40-50 somethings behaving pretty much the same way they are now as 20-somethings.

#3. According to Scripture, this isn't anything new.

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 12:20, "...I am afraid that when I come I may not find you as I want you to be, and you may not find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder."

The things Barna is reporting has been part of the human condition for thousands of years, due to something commonly known as sin. But perhaps Paul was writing to a group of young adults... :o)

#4. My next thought is "what should I do with this information?"

I don't think I will "do" much with it, except to use it to encourage me to stay with the same path I've chosen in leading the young adult ministry I oversee. I want to help young adults answer the question "who am I?" and a big part of that is helping them see how God sees them in Christ and the importance then of Christlike character. If they are living with godly character, I don't have to worry about the profanity, lying, gossiping, etc. that Barna is reporting to be true of this generation I love and am called to work with right now. Jesus himself said "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander." (Matthew 15:19) So we will continue to not only challenge the mind, but impact the heart, to help this great generation be passionate followers of Christ!

Thanksgiving letter to Blogger...

Dear Blogger,

Thank you for FINALLY allowing me to upgrade my blog to Blogger Beta. It feels good to be chosen. While I don't think my post about being taunted by you really had anything to do with this new opportunity, I do sense a bit of Murphy's Law (or Murphy's Cousin's Law) in action.

It is Thanksgiving Day, so I am saying Thanks to you. I will take a look at your new features in the near future, but right now I am going to eat my ice cream, then enjoying hot tubbing with my wife now that the kids are in bed. I'm enjoying time at my brother's place in Nebraska, and these relationships at the moment seem more important than learning about your wonderful new updates. So forgive me for setting you aside for a while after complaining about waiting so long for this opportunity.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, Blogger. May your servers serve well.
-E

P.S. The photo was taken this afternoon just before Thanksgiving meal. See how happy my family is that you upgraded my blog? We truly are grateful. ;o)

Taunted by Blogger...

First, my friend and executive pastor, Kim tells me about this button in his Blogger Dashboard inviting him to switch to the "new" Blogger in Beta. He now has the ability to add tags and do other cool things.

Then my friend and fellow pastor, Tye tells me about his invite to upgrade his blog a few weeks ago.

And all I have to do is wait for my "invite" to be there on my Blogger Dashboard. And so I wait. And wait. And each time I get ready to make a new post, I look for "the button" and find that I am still among the unchosen (perhaps this is the blog version of Calvinism?).

Well, as I made my latest post just moments ago, there it was - the button! It was right next to the happy text that celebrates with me that my new post has been successfully put on my blog each time I click on the "publish" button. It told me all the great new things I would be able to do and how much better my blogging life would be. And so I happily clicked on the button, looking forward to all these new features that Tye and Kim have been telling me about. I am finally among the chosen!

Until I read the next page...

"We're sorry, but we are only allowing certain blogs at this time to be upgraded to the new Beta Blogger. Keep watching your Dashboard for your chance to enjoy the new features."

I am becoming convinced that Blogger is taunting me.

P.S. I know, I know, I can go start a new blog that takes advantage of the new features and import my old blog stuff later, but I don't want to hassle with that. That just seems to be part of the taunting as well.

Obituary for VHS

Gina Green, my administrative assistant, sent an email with the obituary for VHS. This will make my 3-year-old-as-of-tomorrow son very sad, since he can do the VCR at home by himself (despite his parents telling him "no touch" or "wait"), but the DVD player is out of his reach. Here's the shortened version of the obit:

After a long illness, the groundbreaking home-entertainment format VHS has died of natural causes in the United States. The format was 30 years old." The newspaper notes that VHS " is survived by a child, DVD, and by TiVo, VOD and DirecTV" and was preceded in death by Betamax, Divx, mini-discs and laserdiscs. The paper said that while VHS had been ailing, the format's death became official this quarter as retailers decided to pull the plug, saying shelf space was no longer available. Surviving VHS tapes may be found in toy stores or some dollar video chains "for those who cannot deal with the death of the format."

What's the title (of this blog or of your pastor...)?

Tye, one of the great pastors I work with at New Covenant, recently blogged about "titles". His post came immediately to mind when I saw this video parody-ing the NBC "The More You Know" commercials.

I must say, some of the commercials on the "The Church You Know" site are really funny, while others "ride the line" of offensiveness (for some, they are way OVER the line!). I guess some people feel you have to do that in order to engage people to think and discuss critical issues. I've seen it with the XXX Church guys as well several people involved with the emerging church.

Spiritual Q & A

At last week's Watershed Worship Gathering, we had a "Spiritual Q&A". People could write down any spiritual questions they had, and I took my best shot at mutilating an answer. To listen to the mp3, click the link in sentence #1.

However, even though I wasted 45 minutes of everyone's time, there were so many good questions that we just couldn't get to them all. So I promised to post them somewhere, and this is the place. A huge thanks to my administrative assistant Gina for typing all these up for us! Some of these I answered during the night, but most I just couldn't get to. Enjoy wrestling with these questions and God yourself!

P.S. These were typed "as is", so any mistakes you see (especially grammatical) are from the original written question.

Doctrine/Theology/Biblical Passages

? Other than there being a commandment, why should one not steal?
? Thou shall not murder- does this mean ?murder? in a war? Should there be war?
? Do you follow the government that may be against a commandment and support it?
? Does God support liberalism?
? What does it mean to follow God? Ultimately the answer usually includes something that equates to ?listen and He will guide you? but if you can?t ?hear? God, how are you supposed to follow His leadings?
? What do you think ?the Kingdom of God? is? How much attention should we give it and how should it influence the rest of our spiritual lives?
? What does the Bible say about inter-racial marriage?
? Can a believer that has accepted Jesus into their hearts be possessed by a demon? Why or why not?
? Why does the Catholic Church believe we have a connection to/with the dead and the Protestant church doesn?t?
? What is the meaning behind baptism & why do we practice it today?
? Angels- can they be saved, if not, why? If so, can Satan? Does God love Satan, his enemy? What?s the difference between man and angels?
? How do you recognize the baptism of the Spirit?
? Are spiritual gifts (such as tongues, prophecies, etc) necessary to prove salvation?
? Should you give to God first or erase your debt first?

Forgiveness/Sin
? Can we truly believe that someone who believes in Jesus, our Lord, does something horrible like kill someone, repent, kill another man out of hate & repent will go to heaven if he truly repents as opposed to someone who believes in one Lord, does not believe or know of Jesus but live a happy, fair, helping life?
? How do you confront a friend without hurting their feelings? They know they are sinning but they don?t care to change-but they?re in leadership positions.
? Often we are told to guard our hearts, yet how do we do this when we are to forgive over and over an offense which can harden our heart?
? What passages would you point people to who are questioning God?s love for the church-the importance of us being dedicated to one church body?
? How do you claim the forgiveness & grace of God when there?s not an ounce of you that believes God could ever forgive, restore & love you again?
? What is the best way to approach a Christian who continues to engage in obviously sinful behavior even when he/she knows it is sinful?

Prayer
? Define the Holy Spirit and how it relates to prayers
? What the difference between praying directly to God vs. Jesus?
? I struggle with praying that God would help people who aren?t believers in Christ overcome difficult situations in their lives (ex: lost a job, family problems, sickness, loss of a loved one). How much will God do to ?help? them other than to draw them to Himself? I find myself praying that God would not make everything better, but that He would use the situation to help them see their need for a Savior. What are your thoughts/suggestions?

Surrender
? Scripture teaches that God cares for us and provides for us-and I see that in my daily life- yet I?m held back from completely rejoicing in that because I think of other people whose needs are not met (dying in accidents, starvation in 3rd world countries, those who die unsaved). How do we deal with these things?
? What does it look like to trust God with your whole life? Complete surrender?
? How can I fully open my heart to God and friends?

Witnessing
? How do you talk to a person about a personal relationship with Jesus who considers themselves already a Christian, but does not attend church or seem to live a true Christian lifestyle?

Sovereignty of God
? If God knows all that is to come, how can there be such a thing as free will?
? Pre-destination stuff
? Why did God plan that Judas would betray Jesus? If he loves us, how was He showing love to Judas? Why did He harden Pharoah?s heart in front of Moses? How was He showing love by sending plagues (as opposed to softening Pharoah?s heart so he would release the Israelites right away)? I?ve heard these things were to show God?s power but it scares me because it seems like Judas?s & Pharoah?s free will were taken away & they were used (by God) to do bad things?my point is that they weren?t in control & had to do bad things? could this happen to me? I want to do good for God so badly, but sometimes I get scared that God may harden my heart.

Relationships
? Why do I pick at my impurities about myself? What can I do to stop?
? Should I worry if I think no one likes me?

Misc. Questions
? Can you share any new insights that God has given you lately?
? Practically speaking, what does it mean to do things ?in God?s strength?, rather than our own? Doesn?t our strength come from God? If so, then what?s the difference?
? So often I hear people say it says in the Bible, ?I give to you my seed bearing plants? and so many people argue that marijuana is such and so it?s okay to do.
? Can there be too much pumpkin pie? (note from me: this one was an inside joke from something I said during the announcements)

Thanks to everyone who asked a question! I will pray that God will continue to guide and answer you on your honest search. And no, I'm not going to tackle these on here: I'm taking the next couple weeks off and I'm sure when I get back I'll have other things I'll want to blog about!

Live Life

I just ran across this quote in my files while looking for something else...

I want people who are sick to know that a good life doesn't need to be a long life; that they can live the life God gave them, not the life they wish God gave them.

And who is attributed with saying this quote? Cubby De Prince, an 8 year old with AIDS. I sure hope that is true and not some Internet hoax, because that is one awesome quote.

Now that the election is over...

I got so sick of all the negative ads in this year's election - seemed worse than ever. And we don't even watch much television! Made me not want to vote for anyone.

But here's one negative ad I kind of liked. Curious enough, I'd probably vote for Billy!

Enjoy this little video to celebrate the end of election season!

A "haggard" response...

Gordon MacDonald, who is not unfamiliar with public moral failings, chimes in with a great response on the Ted Haggard confession over at the Out of Ur blog.

I feared the worst...

Looks like the allegations against Pastor Ted Haggard for the most part are true. I had hoped so much that he was innocent, but as soon as I heard Ted had denied everything and then recanted on part of it, I feared the worst.

But rather than launch a bunch of verbal missiles, I am choosing to pray for Ted, his family, his church, and Mike Jones, the one who brought this out into the open. I can't imagine the pain these people must feel in the wake of all this. I'd invite you to join me in prayer before we cast judgmental stones.

I am also praying that I and the leaders at New Covenant would be above reproach in all we do, be honest about who we are, and seek help when we are struggling. While New Covenant is the healthiest church I have ever been a part of, one scandal like this could rip to shreds what we have humbly worked so hard at achieving.

And I am also thanking God for his grace these days!

Equipping Staff/Spouse Retreat

I'm at Camp Io-Dis-E-Ca with our Equipping Staff and our spouses right now. All around me is tons of laughter - we have all needed this time to relax and be together. I am SO blessed to be part of such a great team!

Right now Tye is entertaining us with stories from his previous church. His hilarious stories are making me even MORE glad I am where I am!

Well, it's time to go grab some snacks. So while I head for the cookies, here are a couple pics of my awesome kids for you to enjoy:

Tears and Confession...

I want to cry.

As I woke up to the radio this morning, I heard a news report that Ted Haggard, Sr. Pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, CO and now-former president of the National Association of Evangelicals, was being accused of having a three-year homosexual affair. When I got to my office (after speaking at Isaac Newton Christian Academy's chapel), I headed to the Internet (before it was down for 5 hours today!) to learn more.

One of the first things I saw was an interview with Haggard. He denied knowing the guy, denied ever doing drugs, and claimed he was faithful to his wife. As I watched his eyes and body language, I truly believed he was telling the truth.

But now, just moments ago, I learned that he has admitted that "some of the accusations against him are true".

I am not going to make judgements about Ted or the accuser, Mike Jones, at this time. I've already seen too much of that in the few news articles I've seen so far. But if ANY of it is true, it makes me extremely sad. Sad that Ted would do what he knew was wrong. Sad that Ted lied to the media initially. Sad that Mike Jones chose to reveal this hoping to influence some ballots in Colorado.

But also sad because I know this could be me.

No, I've never had a homosexual affair. Heck, I've never even had a homosexual desire. And I've never had a heterosexual affair either.

But I have thought about a sexual tryst. I've looked too long at a woman on the street and wondered certain things. I know I've had all sorts of sinful thoughts and have been tempted in many ways many times. And if I'm not careful, I, too, could end up temporarily removed from my job while an investigation takes place.

This all comes on top of a book I just started yesterday. The book, Confessions of a Pastor, is gut-wrenchingly honest. I sat in my office earlier this morning with my Executive Pastor, Kim Pagel, looking through the chapter titles and realizing "Yep, I've thought that. Yep, I've struggled with that. Yep, that's me!"

As I read the first couple chapters during my reading time yesterday, I realized I HAVE to let certain people in (first and foremost my wife!) simply so I don't end up in a Ted Haggard situation. I love the Lord, my wife, my kids, my church, and my staff family too much to throw it all away for some momentary "fun" or "release". My pride wants so much to keep people out and maintain a certain persona, but God keeps telling me not to - I will eventually be found out if I try to hide the real me from those who matter most in my life. And besides, I'm not fooling Him a bit!

And so I want to cry. I want to cry tears of pain because of my own sin. I want to shed tears of sadness for Ted and Mike and New Life Church. And I want to release tears of joy that God is gently calling me to the painful-yet-freeing process of confession once again.

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.
James 5:16a (NIV)

Reminder of the Day...

Ministry is messy.

Happy Reformation Day!

I was going to put a post on here about Halloween and how much I hate the holiday, but I remembered I did the same last year, so rather than rehash the subject, I will just link to the post I made last year. While I might have reworded things this year, my sentiments about Halloween have remained the same.

But I had a friend who told me that he chooses to celebrate the Reformation each October 31, so for any of you protestants out there, Happy Reformation Day!

P.S. We have a 9-year-old baby, 6-year-old bride, almost 3-year-old Elmo, and a 12-week-old pumpkin in our house this year!

Real Beauty

A while back, Mark Eades, our Jr. High Pastor at New Covenant, showed this Dove film to me (think soap, not Christian music awards...). He is planning to show it to his Jr. High girls.

Tonight during a wedding rehearsal dinner, this video came up as a topic of conversation. A couple of people hadn't seen it, so I'm posting it here for them and others to see this excellent 1 minute film that makes you think about what REALLY makes someone beautiful.

Church Shopping

Wow, this article really hit the nail on the head, I believe. But maybe it's because I've been up all night and not thinking clearly anymore...

But I still say that if you are looking for a church, or considering switching to a different church, read this article first. God may just have something He wants you to learn before you join the greener pastures of your new church home.

Email Avalanche

I am a full week behind on email, so if you've emailed me this past week and not heard from me, I am alive, I am not ignoring you, and I will reply shortly (I hope).

Gotta run. Giving a car to a guy who's vehicle was totaled in an accident two weeks ago. Someone donated it to the church to bless him. This should be fun to see his face after all the hard things that have happened to him these past two weeks!

Apathy towards the Divine...

Personal News
As I knew it would be, October has been a BUSY month. Here's a quick run down (if you care... if not, skip to the "Personal Thoughts" section)

I got the honor of leading a child dedication (which is really a parent dedication if you think about it...) at the wedding ceremony of friends Stephen and Tiffanie the first weekend of October.

Then the 2nd weekend of October I officiated the wedding of Austin and Sara (Austin's sister, Courtney, goes to John Brown University, my alma mater, so immediately you know she is cool - as is her family and new sis-in-law). I also helped with a funeral for a wonderful lady who never had her own children, but raised 6 orphans and 1 other child in her native country of Chad.

The third weekend was this past one, and I spent it at the Main Event collegiate conference (it was great - as usual!).

And this coming weekend I officiate another wedding for Ryan and Nicole (which will be a ton of fun!). Still trying to decide if I should squeeze in Saturday morning at our Pastor/Deacon/Elder retreat.

Whew! Just having the Thanksgiving holiday in November makes for an easier month. :o) Already looking forward to it!

Personal Thoughts

Sticks and stones
May break my bones,
But words will never hurt me.

At the moment those words are untrue. I've had this sinking feeling in my stomach all afternoon after hearing the words of a friend. No, he didn't insult me. But he did insult my God. Basically he doesn't care if he goes to heaven or hell. He tried the "God-thing" and didn't get the results he hoped for, and so God went from top of his priority list to absolute bottom.

It saddened me for him. But it dawned on me why he was so unhappy in life (well, he would say he is "desensitized" to life right now). I told him that he had tried to make God one of the chess pieces in the game of life. And when the piece didn't get him the results or the advantage he wanted, he chose to ignore the piece. It didn't give him good results.

But then I told him the problem with that is that God is not a piece in the game, he is the maker of the game and overseer of it. To know how to play the game, we have to submit to the rulemaker - how did he design the game to be played?

As I read the "rulebook" (the Bible - and yes, this analogy is starting to get cheesy and break down so I will abandon it shortly), God wants us to play with a submissive heart to him. He is not some pawn to be moved in a formulaic way to get the results we desire. He is a holy living God who knows we deserve death, but has paid the penalty through the cross because he loves us and wants a relationship with us (see Romans 6:23).

What makes my stomach sick right now, though, is that my friend knows this, and is still choosing to thumb his nose at God and live life "his" way. And to hear those words hurt deep. Not because they hurt me directly. But because those words are actually revealing the hurt he is feeling, and he has chosen to be calloused so as to not feel the pain.

And if my friend reads this, whether you want me to or not, I'll be praying for you...

The Race

This was supposed to be a "lighter" week for me since my friend Nate started a 4 week teaching series on Jonah at Watershed's Worship Gathering. But my week has been anything BUT lighter. One of the many things taking up my time has been helping a family plan the funeral for a beloved mom/grandma who tragically died in a car accident last week. In fact, I was at their house until after 11:00 pm last night finishing up details so we could print up a program today for Sunday's funeral service (or as they are calling it "Service of Consolation").

This morning I saw the news headlines on my screen saver and one said something about race. The ABC news article said that in a recreated 1940s test, black kids overwhelmingly picked white dolls as their preferred doll and as the "good" doll. This surprised me especially because last night I was helping a black family plan a funeral and I had listened to a black man speak at last night's Worship Gathering. And I hadn't thought a thing about it until I saw the short film referenced in the ABC news article (which was created by a high school student).

Nate (who hails from Chad, the same as the grieving family) and I have had conversations about race before. I live my life without any thought of race - he tries to, but sometimes it is an issue for him as an African man. To me, culture is far more important than the color of your skin. But obviously there are still people to whom race is a big deal. And it deeply affects their thinking, their choices, and their self-image (which the film made very clear).

What can we do to help those who struggle with issues of race? How are you, as a follower of Christ, helping others see that skin color doesn't matter to God?

More Phil Vischer

After posting about Godless Veggies, I saw Phil Vischer's new venture - JellyFish. On this new site is the story of how Phil went from starting and losing VeggieTales to starting JellyFish Labs. When I came across these two paragraphs, they really hit me at this busy time in my life:

---
Through the experience, Phil realized some interesting things. First, our relationships with God are much more important than our work for God. God doesn?t want us to be ?busy,? he wants us to be available. He doesn?t want us to focus on ?impact,? he wants us to focus on obedience. If we?re walking with Him, we?ll know when He has something specific for us to do. We don?t need to make stuff up. If we?re so wrapped up in the work we?re doing for God that we can?t even make eye contact with the person bagging our groceries, something in our lives is way out of whack.

Second, to be a Christian is to give Christ ?lordship? of our lives. That?s what it means. He?s Lord, we?re not. And if we?ve given Christ lordship of our lives, where we are in 20 years is, frankly, none of our business. Where we are in 5 years is none of our business. What is our business, is what God has told us to do today, and whether or not we?re doing it. That?s it.
---

God is so kind to me. Every time I hit a busy spell like this, I seem to get the above reminder in some form or another. Thanks, God, for the reminder. I needed it.

Godless VeggieTales

While trying to find out what college football games would be on TV a couple Saturdays ago, I accidentally stumbled onto a VeggieTales episode being shown on NBC. I was floored! As a dad of kids who love Bob, Larry, and the gang (ok, I admit, I love VeggieTales myself!), I was excited to think that quality, God-centered, values-teaching programming was going to be on broadcast television every week. Then I heard that the "God-centered" part of VeggieTales was being removed. It didn't make sense, and I thought that perhaps VeggieTales had sold out.

Well, I just saw Phil Vischer's blog explaining the whole story. I feel bad for him and others who had dreams of using quality Christian entertainment to teach kids about character-based living to only end up seeing the reason for our values being removed from the films.

Speaking...

Not much posting going on due to a busy week. I am speaking twice this week. Thursday night at Watershed I will be giving a message about Evangelism (which I will continue working on after posting this) and Sunday in all 4 services at New Covenant the topic will be Community (specifically looking at the relationship of David and Jonathan in 1 Samuel). And Sunday will include one fun element - I get to speak with one of my best friends in the whole world, Leo Anderson. That will be a pleasure to share a platform with Leo. It will be even more fun if we can get the sermon actually put together. :o)

Computer's Back

I just got my laptop back today after it had a trip to the "computer hospital". The hard drive (made by Toshiba - so please no "let's bash Apple" jokes) was going bad. Thankfully it was all under warranty. Now I'm having to go back through and bring things back up to where they were when the drive went bad. Thankfully I had most things backed up, but I didn't have a few apps backed up (so I'm re-downloading them and re-installing them), and worst of all - I had failed to back up my bookmarks! A complete travesty.

And for some reason I can't get my email program to connect correctly to the Exchange server at church. Other than that, it's been somewhat easy (and a bit fun - although a time waster) to get things back into order so I can at least look like I'm being efficient).

Ok, so this was a waste of a blog, but at least you now know the reason for my blogging absence. So all 3 of you can rest easy now - the computer's back, so I'm back.

The Lust of Money

While I may be lusting after cameras and computers, one American Idol judge is lusting after something more direct. Money.

I'm not an avid Rolling Stone mag reader, so forgive me if you've already heard this. But in the April 6 edition of Rolling Stone, Simon Cowell, of American Idol fame, said during an interview:

Rolling Stone: What do you want more than anything else in the world?
Simon Cowell: Money. As much money as I can get my hands on. It's as simple as that.
RS: I read that you're worth something like $90 million. Not enough?
SC: No.

I just read the above in Servant magazine. And immediately after this excerpt, they had this Benjamin Franklin quote (whose face graces the $100 US bill):

"Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of its filling a vacuum, it makes one. If it satisfies one want, it doubles and triples that want another way."

Mr. Franklin in the 1700s was merely echoing what had already been in the Holy Scriptures thousands of years before.

Whoever loves money never has money enough;
whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.
This too is meaningless.
Ecclesiastes 5:10

At last Thursday's Watershed Worship Gathering, I spoke about being desperate. Are you desperate for money like Simon - which doesn't satisfy? Or are you desperate for the One who does satisfy and will meet all your needs (which, by the way, are different from your wants - like cameras)?

Material Lust

I have a confession to make. I am currently struggling with lust.

I think I know why God hasn't made me rich. As often as I try to fool myself into thinking I'd do the super spiritual thing and give it all away, I have a feeling I know where some of that money would go.

I am currently lusting for the new Canon Digital Rebel XTi (also called the 400D - see photo at left). And Apple just put out a 24-inch iMac. Our current camera and computer aren't performing at their peek, so it's justified, right? (Oh yeah, the bank account says we can't afford it. Bummer...)

I guess I should thank God for new products like these to help me relearn contentment!

If you'd like to think about finance, possessions, and contentment more, I recommend viewing the newest Nooma film - 013 Rich.