My boring blog

Finally I know why my blog is so boring.  I don't post frequently enough.  I don't post about enough current topics.  I seem to be more of a drive-by blogger.

But I'm content with that.  I blog for myself and any young adults (or perhaps their parents) that might actually be interested in reading one of my thoughts.  I know my blog doesn't contribute very much to the grand scheme of life and God's Kingdom, but sometimes it is the perfect format for me to just share my thoughts.  And (based on the very nice person who just stuck their head in my office moments ago (unbeknownst to what I was typing here) and said how much she enjoys my blog) it occasionally blesses others too.

So I think I'll just stick to the way I've been doing things.  Even if it is boring.

Misperceptions of Father

This afternoon while getting my kids a snack, my 3 and a half year old, S (pictured) said "Daddy, you are really big! You must be a hundred!" Now, you have to keep in mind that S's favorite number right now is the century mark. To him it represents a lot - the most he can possibly conceive. He often will say "Daddy, I love you 100!" So he was actually trying to complement me, not insult me. But my 5' 8" frame couldn't help but gently shake as I laughed at the misperceptions of my son.

As I laughed at S's misunderstanding of age and size, the thought hit me that I probably do the same thing to God. I underestimate His size. I miscalculate his wisdom. I misinterpret His ways.

I just hope that God can still smile and laugh at me because He can even see in my childishness that I still hope to grow up to be like Him. Even if S thinks I have to be 100 before that happens!

Razooing Blood:Water Mission

I got an email asking me to join Blood:Water Mission's group on a new action-oriented social networking site called Razoo. If Blood:Water Mission gets enough members, they could be selected as winner of the Change Your World Contest, which would award them $10,000.

Blood:Water Mission is doing great things helping Africans get clean fresh drinking water from wells right beneath their feet. I'd encourage you to join Razoo as well, and after you confirm your email address, click on http://beta.razoo.com/groups/bloodwatermission to join the group and help them out.

Waiting for Marriage

USA Today published an article about young adults and their "wait" for marriage.  I knew the average age of first time marriages was increasing, but this gives further evidence to this fact.

According to the article, "[t]he trend toward delaying marriage has emerged over several decades as economic and social forces have made it more difficult for those in their 20s to reach independence. Sociologists and demographers say other factors are also at work, including increasing numbers of cohabiting couples, more highly educated women who have fewer highly educated men of comparable age to partner with, and more choices open to women than in decades past."

I would personally add to this list:

• Looser Sexual Norms:   Each generation tends to move further and further away from the expected sexual norms of their parents' generation.  Media (both professional (TV and cinema) and self-published (such as YouTube)) seem to reflect this.  Why wait for marriage for sex when you are encouraged to enjoy it outside of a long-term marriage commitment?
  
• Pain of Divorce:  The children of the divorces of the 80s are now adults and have no desire to experience the pain they watched their parents go through (and that they themselves experienced).  So why rush into marriage when it appears it will only bring arguing, separation, and pain?
• Extended Adolescence:  Sociologists have been extending the age of adolescence to 26, and in some cases I've read, age 30.  We seem to be maturing slower, whether because of our upbringing, parental examples, education, or past experiences, and so we simply aren't ready for the responsibility of marriage.

Those were the first things to pop into my mind, and I'm not surprised one bit by the USA Today article.  And I don't necessarily see this as a bad thing - I would rather have people wait until they truly are ready for marriage than jump in to soon and wreak havoc upon a relationship through their selfishness and immaturity.

Thanks to Church Relevance for the link.

Losing Hymns for Him?

I may get in trouble for this post, but I've wanted to blog my thoughts on this subject for several weeks now and am finally carving out a bit of time to do so.

A while back I read a note in which the author, sharing his or her opinion about hymns, said that he or she was "afraid we are raising a generation of young people who will never be ministered to by these godly hymns."

First off, I want to say that I love the hymns.  But it isn't because I grew up with them.  I was raised in a church that reacted to the dead faith of the churches in our area by singing contemporary songs in our church service.  The adults in my church family had experienced life in Christ, and they didn't want to sing the same hymns the "dead" churches were monotonously droning out each Sunday.  Simple Scripture choruses were all I knew growing up.  In fact, as a kid I thought Keith Green had written "Holy, Holy, Holy" for his Songs for the Shepherd album.  So when I transferred my sophomore year of college to John Brown, I learned about all these great hymns I had never heard before.  And I still love to sing them today.

But with that said, I believe there is nothing "godly" about the hymns.  They are simply songs (tools) designed to help us in our worship of God.  They are not equivalent to Scripture.  They are not inerrant.  They are not God-breathed, designed to last forever.

If hymns were designed to be passed from generation to generation, then I would like for someone to teach us some of the hymns Jesus and his disciples sang.  If ever there was a godly hymn, it would have been the one Jesus sang with his disciples after the Last Supper before they headed out. (see Matthew 26).  I'd also like to learn some of the hymns Paul knew.  He mentions hymns a few times in Scripture (see especially Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16), and I think he even records the lyrics to some hymns in Scripture (as some say about Ephesians 5:14).  But where are the melodies to these hymns?  Where are the lyrics to the hymns Paul didn't quote?  Where are these hymns today?

I think the answer is obvious.  God uses the music of the time and culture to create and craft songs through his worshippers to exalt Him.  It isn't a tragedy to God to have these hymns "lost", because He is not tied to cultural forms of music.  The tragedy is when people hold the hymns (or any song or form of worship for that matter) higher than the things that truly last.

Now, if a hymn can take the heart and mind of a worshipper to the heavens and to the foot of God's throne - wonderful!  That is what it was designed to do.  But if other songs are doing the same thing and the hymn is lost, I believe God is just as glorified and the worshippers have lost nothing.  God wants our hearts, not our hymns.  Worship is about the One on the throne who died for us, not about the one in the pew longing for their own personal forms and traditions.

Blogging on Phrogging

A few weeks ago, I was introduced to the concept of phrogging.  According to Urban Dictionary, phrogging is the act of secretly living in another person's home.  This concept has been brought to the limelight by a documentary called Living With Strangers. and ABC's i-Caught.  Supposedly most phrogs are young adults who don't want to work a 9-5 job, but want the "pad" of a working professional, so they hop from place to place enjoying the amenities without having to pay the rent.

I watched a couple of the short videos on the Living With Strangers website.  A part of me was (and still is) very skeptical that people really do this (and skeptical that the documentary was true).  Another part of me was creeped out by the idea.

But then I had another thought.  I realized many people have been phrogging churches for a long time.  They attend worship services every week, but never make their presence known.  They consume from the church, but never contribute.  They want the conveniences of the church, but never join the family.  Then the jump to another church for whatever reason they decide.  In short, they miss out on the things that really matter and bring the greatest joy.

Maybe we should create a new entry on Urban Dictionary for "Church Phrogs..."

My 200th Post - MyPhone

Recently I was researching for a message I'll be giving in a month, and as I did so I read a guy's blog where he started it off by saying "The iPhone is now MyPhone". Well, those words are now MyWords.

To celebrate my 200th blog post, I'm going to admit to the world that I now own an iPhone. One of my friends who shall remain nameless (but his initials are Mike Goril) said "Erin, I'm a single guy who gets paid very well, and even I can't justify buying an iPhone.  How does a guy like you afford to get one?"

Well, Mr. Anonymous Mike and all those with similar thoughts, let me tell you a story that will hopefully glorify God in the purchase of a little gadget...

My church has asked that each of the Equipping Staff have a cell phone.  I was the last one to not have one.  I knew that I would function best with a smartphone - to have my PDA and cell phone combined.  I've used Palm OS systems for years, so I figured I would get a Treo 680, the least expensive Palm on the market.  But a "free" Treo 680 actually ended up costing $40 more after a 2-year contract than an iPhone did after its 2-year contract.

So I was surprised I was even considering an iPhone.  I mean it was too expensive, right?  But then Apple started selling "refurbished" units (which I now believe was actually a clearance of brand new units given their recent decisions concerning the iPhone) for $100 less.  So now I needed to come up with $400.

I happened to be on the Tapland forums (which I hadn't visited for probably a year), and someone in Uganda was wanting to buy a Zodiac 2, which was the PDA I was using daily.  So I offered to sell it for $100 and my new Ugandian friend agreed to it and paid the shipping.

So then I needed to come up with $300.  As I pondered this, I realized I am planning to close my web design business this fall, and in doing so, that frees up the almost $200 in that account.  So now I need to come up with $100.

Because I sold my Zodiac, I needed to go ahead and purchase the iPhone.  But I kept praying that God would somehow provide the last $100.  So when Apple announced on Wednesday they were dropping the price of the 8 Gb phone $200 and getting rid of the 4 Gb altogether, I was confused why God didn't lead me to wait until the price drop.  But then I "just happened" to see on a website that Apple has a 10-day price guarantee.  I quickly looked at a calendar, and lo-and-behold, I had purchased my phone exactly 10 days before.  I immediately called Apple, sat on hold for an hour and a half, and finally heard the good news that not only would I be refunded $100, but I would actually be refunded $150 because I had purchased a refurbished unit.

So my "$500" iPhone actually ended up costing $250, and I won't have to spend a penny out of pocket.  While I've struggled to understand why God answered these prayers for me and hasn't answered others (lots of messy ministry situations right now that I am aware of, plus many messy situations around the world), all I know is that God clearly worked in this situation and I am SOOOO grateful.

Hopefully this was a worthy enough story for my 200th post...

The perfect church service...

“The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of. Our attention would have been on God.” (C.S. Lewis)

Back to the Blog

Long time, no blog.

The excuse? Busyness. Pure, unadulterated busyness. I've been so busy I haven't even READ blogs, let alone have time to write on my own. In fact, I started this blog 2 weeks ago on Aug. 24, and yet here I am two weeks later finally finishing the post.

But I hope to resume as I am sure all three of you out there are dying to know what's happened in my life and that the blogosphere has deeply missed my voice among the millions and billions of blogs floating around in cyberspace.

Rather than unleash all my thoughts at once, I will try to share some of the blog ideas I've had over the past several weeks over the next few days. We'll see how it goes...

Entering a Cult

Yes, it is true. This summer I joined a cult. I had heard of this cult for quite a while, and naturally I doubted this cult held the truth. But its adherents (some of which were other pastors on staff at New Covenant who evangelized me upon my return from the Czech Republic) seemed convinced of the veracity of their "theology", and I was desperate for help, so I drank the Kool-Aid. I read their "bible". I began to implement the principles. I'm an early convert and not quite ready to make disciples, but I'm giving this a true college try.

In case you are afraid for me, I want to assure you I'm used to these cult things - I am a Mac user, own a Tapwave Zodiac (at least DID own one until last week - more on that in another blog), have been a Nebraska Cornhusker football fan my whole life, and have been drinking Mt. Dew since childhood. So I am used to these sort of things.

So what is this cult? Why, it is the Getting Things Done cult, of course. The "messiah" of this cult is David Allen, author of the bestselling book by the same name. I am still only 75% of the way through implementing the GTD system (busyness has kept me from getting "Getting Things Done" done), but I can tell already it is going to help me in the long run.

It took a lot of time to begin the process of converting the whole organization of my office, task handling, schedule, and life, but I'm glad I'm giving it a try. Administrative stuff has always been a weakness of mine and I needed help. But it appears GTD has come to the rescue. Hopefully it will help me put in enough margin in my life to get back to blogging!