Pieces of Glass

I found a surprise in my office today. A strange manila envelope was on my desk, clearly with something thicker than just a letter inside.

As I opened it up I was thrilled to find a copy of the soon-to-be released book "Pieces of Glass"! The story contained in its pages is that of my friend, Sarah Kay Ndjerareou. It is a heartbreaking story of the emotional pain Sarah went through as a result of a debilitating skiing accident her fiance suffered.

My wife and I were actually in Cedar Rapids candidating for the position I now hold when the news was shared with the church that Sarah's fiance was critically injured. I remember praying for this injured young man and his fiance whom I did not know.

Over time, I got to meet Sarah and I discovered she was a remarkable young woman. And then to my pleasant surprise, she married my good friend Nate a couple years later. And now she is a published author. Even though Sarah's life-story is still being written, I praise God that the splintered pieces of glass she saw from her life have been used to create a beautiful mosaic. I pray that the family of Sarah's former fiance are seeing some of the same work from God in their lives as well.

To get your own copy of "Pieces of Glass", pre-order it from Amazon or Zondervan. Or support your local Christian bookstore by getting the book after August 1st there.

Sarah has a blog with TONS of pictures of her daughter Sophia (and a couple with Nate as well!). Stop by and tell her "congrats" on the publication of her new book!

And to hear Sarah's story (as told to the Watershed crowd on May 26, 2005) click here. (This is the only place you'll find this link!)

Appearance is Everything?

Trivia question: Name the following company based on its litany of honors...

Received six awards in 2000 for being environmentally friendly
Fortune - America's most innovative company for six consecutive years (1996 to 2001)
Fortune - America's #2 company for Quality of Management, 2001
Fortune - America's 22nd best company to work for in 2000
Fortune - 2nd ranked American company for employee talent in 2000
Financial Times - Energy Company of the Year, 2000
Global Finance - World's best company in the Energy Sector, 2001

And the Answer is... are you ready for this... Enron.*

While everything looked so good externally for this energy giant, the core of the company was rotting due to extremely poor decisions. Today the word "Enron" doen't bring to mind "innovative" or "best", rather the word brings to most people's minds words like "failure", "corruption", "deceit", "fraud", and the like.

Sometimes I fear a lot of Christians live life like Enron. They try to appear like they have everything together, when spiritually and emotionally they are dry and possibly even rotting. They wear the smile on Sunday while their pillow is wet from tears. They carry the words of God under their arm, but God seems so far away. And they hate themselves for their hypocrisy.

So what's the cure? Confession.

It is amazing what a dose of truth can do. It may seem painful to let the blazing light of truth crash into the darkness of our souls - but our spiritual eyes will adjust and we will eventually be thankful that the truth is known.

Are you being a spiritual "Enron"? If so, who can you safely go to and confess the emptiness to?

(source: Leadership Wired)

Assuming the Heart

Ames, Iowa, home to Iowa State University, has made a bit of news this week. Thousands of people are descending upon the city for a big event, and so to "help out" the university student newspaper thought that they would give tips and info about the community. And the headline they chose played off of the popular "Dummies" books. But the reason this is making the news and blog sites is because the event is the Special Olympic National Games.

The students from the paper claim it was an innocent mistake, and even the event organizer has recognized it as such. But some people won't give it up, making assumptions about the motives of the students, harshly criticizing them over this mistake, calling them "insensitive" and implying the newspaper editors are the "dummies".

In other news, a 4 year old boy was stripped of his pageant crown as "Little Mr. Apricot" in California for flipping off the crowd with his middle finger. Organizers were outraged and gave the title to the runner up. Mom says he was trying to say he was #1, but he often confuses his index and middle fingers. Just recently my 6 year old daughter innocently kept pointing with her middle finger, and we kept correcting her - so I buy the mom's version. But again, as public opinion weighs in, negative assumptions are being made about the heart of the mom, the kid, and the pageant authorities.

These two stories clashed in my mind today with my own heart. As I felt sad about the quick judgment people were rushing too, I realized that yesterday I had done the exact same thing.

Due to an email I received, I investigated online a clash between prominent Christian figures. Assumptions about the motivations of one pastor caused a second pastor and his network to make sweeping judgments against the first pastor as well as take a hard stand against another movement within the Church. But this first story led me to another sort of unrelated story about a church where the transition from one pastor to another hadn't gone too well. I made all sorts of judgments against the outgoing pastor, assuming negative things about his heart and motivations.

Perhaps I was right - maybe the outgoing pastor really is as conniving as the online evidence seemed to support. But I am not involved in the case one bit and my opinion won't change a thing - so why was I so quick to assume the worst about a man's character?

As I read blogs and stories yesterday about the first incident concerning one pastor's strong stance against another pastor, I read tons of comments that other readers left. They rushed to judgment, typing sweeping statements of condemnation against the first pastor, assuming the worst about his heart, intentions, and motivations. I found myself extremely dissappointed in the Body of Christ yesterday. But then when I realized I did the exact same thing about the failed-transtion story, I was dissappointed in myself.

My silent prayers both last night and this morning were that God would give me a pure heart and that through the Holy Spirit I would operate with a clear conscience. In the past year I have felt like my heart and motives have been judged and negatively assumed by some. I want to live my life in such a way that these people would lack evidence to support their opinion. And I want to live my life in such a way that I don't judge others so quickly and that I am a man of grace.

Mankind makes mistakes because he is sinful. But last time I checked, I was part of mankind. That God for the cross of Christ!

The Right Thing Is Not Always the Convenient Thing

Personal News
After being gone for two weeks at two different conferences, The Birdnest got a much needed "family vacation". All five Birds(make that six) trekked in the minivan to Grand Rapids, MI. The goal? Simply rest and hangout with our good friends we met years ago while serving in Venezuela together.

So Leo - if you are reading this - thank you for the wonderful time. My family THOROUGHLY enjoyed the time with your family. I thank God that he has blessed my life with yours.

Personal Thoughts
Yesterday, LeAnn and I and the kids worked on our yard. The goal? Lay a weed barrier with rock on top of it. We already had the weed barrier netting, but we needed to purchase the rock. After looking at several different places yesterday, we settled on a gray slate because we thought it would look good with the black shutters on our house and really make the plants stand out. Boy were we wrong! The gray slate was too drab. So after dumping out 5 bags, we loaded the bags back up. I hauled all 38 bags back to the mini-van, and we returned them to purchase something else (ended up with 60 bags of common river rock).

Immediately after we made the decision to not go with the gray slate stone, my oldest daughter asked why we had bought the slate in the first place. I told her we originally thought the slate would look good, but once we got it home, we realized it wasn't what we wanted. She complained a little bit about the burden of putting the rock back in the bags and hauling it back to Menards and how inconvenient this all was (I don't know what she was complaining for - I'm the one who carried all those bags!). Suddenly I found myself saying "the right thing is not always the convenient thing".

Convience is not a Right
My statement struck me because I had just given that same advice to two different people concerning two different situations in the past two weeks. Each of them wanted the convenient thing. They wanted what was going to be easiest. And this desire for the easier road was causing them to justify the decision they either had already made or were about to make.

To be honest, I couldn't blame them. I want the easy way, too. I did not want to haul 38 bags of rock yet again (and haul 60 bags of the new rock we bought). I do not want to confront people concerning sin in their life. I don't always want to discipline my kids. I find myself gravitating towards the lazier route, the easy way, the convenient road.

But God's Word doesn't tell us that Christ promises us convenience. All God promises us is his presence.

Are you facing an issue in your life and you so badly want to take the convenient route? Chances are it isn't the right route. Doing the right thing is not always the convenient thing. But I encourage you to listen to God's Spirit whispering what the wise thing is to do and not just go for what seems to be easier. Most of the counseling I do with people are because they took a short cut when it came to God's plan for their life.

So whether it be a relationship you are in, or a job you are pursuing, or a project you are involved with - I encourage to not take the convenient route. Instead - take the RIGHT route. I don't know what that route looks like for you, but I have a feeling you already know what that route looks like for you.

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(DISCLAIMER: I am sorely behind on email and other stuff due to my conferences and family vacation, so please forgive my lack of Scripture references, links, photos, bad grammar, etc. in the above. I typed this as quickly as I could because I need to move on to other things. But I didn't want to forget this story because it seemed important to me to blog about. Ok, Disclaimer over. Back to your regular web reading...)

Culture Clash

I haven't blogged for what seems an eternity, but this one was too funny not to share. My friend, Gary Lamb, who pastors a fairly new church in the Atlanta area (I met Gary when he pastored a church in Ames), had an absolutely hilarious post on his blog that I just saw today.

To give you a little background - Gary's church is convinced that if you reach men, you'll reach the whole family. Studies have shown Gary to be right.

So that's why Gary is crazy enough to launch a teaching series called "DRIVE" with a NASCAR theme on Mother's Day. He figures some guys who don't normally come to church will come with their wives on Mother's Day to make them happy. And if the husband comes back to church the next week, the wife won't mind that "her" day had a NASCAR theme instead of a flower theme.

So to get ready for the new teaching series, Gary and his team thought it would be creative to get some "man on the street" interviews at a NASCAR race. So they headed two hours away to a big race. And that's when the culture clash happened...

While the filming didn't come out exactly as Gary had hoped, I'm still proud of him for stepping into that culture. Are you willing to step into a different culture? Are you willing to befriend those different than you? Are you willing to extend a handshake to a stranger?

One of the reasons I think Gary's church is doing so well in only it's second year of existence is because he and his church are willing to befriend anyone. Even NASCAR women with rings. :o)

Becoming a Caring Community

Since my last post was about basketball, I thought I'd post something else that involves the round ball. A friend showed me the video on ESPN's website about Jason McElwain, the autistic boy who scored 20 points in the last 4 minutes of the only basketball game he played in his entire high school career.

What so moves me about the video is not that he scored such a high amount of points in his only game in 4 years, but it is the reaction of the student body and basketball team. Jason has autism, which means he is different than the average high school student - and yet that doesn't matter to these kids. Jason is part of their team, part of their high school, and so they are thrilled when he gets a moment to shine. There is no jealousy that he was the game's high scorer, there was only celebration.

Do you celebrate with others when great things happen to them? Are you empathetic with the situations other people are facing? Do you "rejoice with those who rejoice" (Romans 12:15)? Or are you jealous when great things happen to your friends? Are you a caring community member or a self-absorbed member?

"Guest Vision" in Basketball Liturgy

I thought this was an excellent article about making guests feel comfortable in a new environment (whether its your favorite college coliseum or your church).

What are you, as a Christian young adult, doing to ease the transition for church visitors to become friends? Are you walking around church with "guest vision" or are you "member blind" because you are so well acquainted with your church environment?

The McPassion

It was January of 2004. I was sitting in the "old" auditorium at Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington, IL blessed with the opportunity to go to a pastor's advance screening of The Passion of the Christ. I was excited to see the highly touted Mel Gibson film, but was leery of all the "hype" around it - especially when I saw the words "The Greatest Evangelistic Opportunity in 2000 years" attached to flyers and an intro to the film produced by Outreach Marketing.

A couple weeks later I tag-teamed with another pastor at our church who also saw the preview showing with me to do a message about the Passion of the Christ. I told people the movie was well-done, but very intense, yet could be a great opportunity to share about Jesus' sacrifice on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. Not once did I say that Mel's flick was "the greatest evangelistic opportunity in 2000 years..." and that people MUST see it.

Then Narnia came. I was super excited about the film because I just finished reading the entire Narnia series to my oldest daughter. But when the church was approached about promoting the film, I was leery once again. I don't feel like the church should be Hollywood's promotion machine to get into Christian's wallets.

Apparently I'm not the only who feels this way. One filmmaker is so disgusted with churches telling their congregations which movies it is their "duty" to see, that he responded to this issue... in film.

I showed this 4 minute satire to one guy and we laughed hysterically together. However, it appears not everyone is laughing.

What are your thoughts?

The Best Birthday Gifts...

Yesterday was my birthday. I like my birthdays when they go by like an ordinary day. I've never enjoyed having a big deal made about me. And so yesterday was a great day because I was just so busy going about things like an ordinary day.

Until I got home.

I've decided that my birthday isn't for me anymore. It's for my kids. While I don't want a big deal made about me - my kids like having a big deal made about them, and since that is "birthday culture" in their minds, they want to extend the "favor" to me. But I learned yesterday what the best presents are.

The best birthday gifts I got yesterday were:

- a spontaneous hug from my two year old
- a homemade card from my 8 year old
- a gorgeous smile from my 5 year old when I walked in the door
- and watching Cinderella Man with my wife

So what "presents" are you getting that you may not realize are there? Are you letting the precious things of life slip by unnoticed because you are wanting a "big deal" made about you?

Becoming a Lover of Strangers...

Well, it's happened again.

One of the young adults I work with is leaving the church family I'm a part of. Not because of anything I've done (thankfully!) or because she believes this to be a bad or heretical church. Her reason is pretty simple: she didn't connect.

She tried. Oh did she try. She called people. She hung around for well over a year. She tried opening up. But rarely did anyone call her. Rarely was she given a warm welcome by the regulars. Rarely was she invited from the end of the table to join the conversation in the middle.

It hurts. I hurt - I considered her family. I consider all of the young adults I work with to be family. And every time one of them moves on - whether due to job change or marriage or whatever - I hurt. I do celebrate with them if it's appropriate (just as I celebrate with this particular young adult that she has found a different church that instantly felt like home) but inwardly I hurt.

But why did this other church feel like home? She was welcomed. She found a church family that practiced hospitality.

I've been told by a very reliable source that the word "hospitality" in the Greek means "lover of strangers." It's so easy to love those we already know, to go shake hands with the person we just hung out with last night, to call up those we "click" with - but what about the new person, the outsider, the stranger?

The church I am a part of is a very hospitable place - we just missed it with this one gal. The group she was a part of didn't go the distance required to make her part of the family - they left her feeling like the unwanted step child. But rather than just mourn this loss, I want to use it to remind me to be a lover of all people, even strangers.

So I am committing myself to calling new people more. I'm making a decision today to shoot off more quick "hello" emails. I'm going to get back to what I used to regularly do - walk up to complete strangers and make them feel at home.

So I challenge you, as a young adult, to be a lover of strangers. To make new people acquaintances and acquaintances friends. To welcome someone new this week with a smile and your name. To extended the hand of friendship to that new coworker. To take a plate of cookies to your new neighbor. To invite that guest at your church into your "church home" and give them a tour. To help new people connect because once upon a time you were a "new person".