Africa Here I Come, Ready or Not.
Friday morning I get on a plane that will take me to Dallas. There I will get on another plane, which will take me to Amsterdam. In Amsterdam, I will board a plane that, Lord willing, will take me to Sudan. From Sudan I fly into Addis, Ethiopia. Lord have mercy.
I have never been to Africa, nor have I ever flown to so many airports in one trip. When I signed up to go on this trip, I thought that surely I will be spiritually and emotionally prepared to take this journey when far-away November rolls around. Now that I am staring down the barrel of a trip to a strange land, I am getting apprehensive.
Inadequacy has a crippling effect on many Christians when we are so close to being right where God wants us to be. I can feel it with everything in me that I NEED to go to Africa. However, I can feel the sticky residue of past failures crowding my mind and causing me to feel inadequate for the task.
Inadequacy is a lie. If I am crucified with Christ, and no longer live, but Christ lives in me (Gal 2:20), then I am more than adequate, not I but He who lives in me. Christ conquered death and the grave, surely He can go on a trip to minister to orphans. If He is the firstborn of all creation, if in Him all things hold together, and if all things were created by Him and for Him, then what am I anxious about?
My pride continues to extinguish the flame that God continuously attempts to ignite in my heart. My pride causes me to think I am inadequate for this task, because it leads me to believe I am the one in charge of accomplishing this task in the first place.
I am convinced the Devil doesn’t worry about people who are too consumed with themselves to do any damage to his plots. I need to be refined, molded, and shaped into a picture of my Savior.
I am going to miss writing to you for the next 10 days, but surely I will have stories to tell you upon my (Lord willing) safe return. Pray for me in my travels. Pray more earnestly that the work of the Father is done.
Posted 4 days ago on November 4 2009
Field Trip to a Russian Orthodox Church
So today in one of my classes we took a trip to a Russian orthodox church here in Denver. One of the Fathers taught us about what their church looks like and how they worship.
Talk about convicting! Basically he compared most evangelical worship services to “Second-rate attempts at rock concerts.” How often am I guilty of just wanting to be entertained while I am supposed to be worshiping? The Orthodox worship service is all about sacrifice. The worshiper offers his or her sacrifice of praise and intersession, instead of simply waiting for the speaker to wow them with his funny and clever illustrations.
For two and a half hours the worshipers stand and offer these sacrifices. No instruments. No screens. No videos. No light bars. Just worship.
Too often we try to worship on our own terms instead of offering what God asks of us. We are all guilty of being worship divas. When we stop to realize church isn’t about us, we will all be a lot better off.
If I hear one more person tell me a particular worship service just wasn’t their “style,” I am going to explode. I have felt that way myself, but I’m coming to realize there is a lot more to church than an entertaining worship experience. So we all need to rearrange our priorities and just get over ourselves.
Posted 6 days ago on November 2 2009
Manic Monday Musings
So I’m catching up on my reading and my homework that I put off thanks to SNOWDAY2K9 (see previous post), and I thought I’d give musing a whirl as well. These are my thoughts from the week.
- Halloween is the silliest of all holidays. However, I think it is an easy target for comedy. Too many people point out its obvious flaws: ladies dressing like tarts, children getting fat on candy, people getting hit by cars, and too many unfunny people trying to be funny with their costumes that just make everyone feel awkward (looking at you, guy who wore a leaf to cover himself, trying to be Adam). If it is so obviously silly, why do people still celebrate this holiday? I think it is because it is one of very few holidays in America that don’t have any distinctive religious implications. People of all faiths can dress like idiots and eat too much candy corn (read:any candy corn, because, let’s face it, any candy corn is too much candy corn).
- If you own more than three moleskine notebooks and you have no real aspirations of becoming a creative writer, you might need to reevaluate some things. My girlfriend might fit this category, but she doesn’t count.
- When it snows a ton you really see what kind of person you are. When it is tough to get out of your driveway, do you plow through it or just take a nap? Sadly, many naps were taken this week.
- Sexism is becoming more hilarious than offensive to me. I think it is because I see it as so idiotic and ignorant that I can’t take it seriously. For instance, I laugh at any joke I hear about women being bad at driving or needing to learn to cook, because no one actually believes that, right? Really?
- I’m going to Ethiopia on Friday to drop shoes off to Orphans, so there will be no musings this week either. However, you will get some posts upon my return where I recount how life-changing this trip is and all that. You might also get some fresh videos or pics to peep at.
Posted 1 week ago on October 28 2009
Cold, Snow, and Movies
So it snowed a good foot and a half at my house in Denver today, class was canceled, and the roads were treacherous. You know what that means? Movie day! My roommates and I watched Land of the Lost (ehhh) and Bottle Rocket (Classic) while eating Duffy Rolls (local joint) and roasting a chicken for dinner. I have to say, this has been one of my favorite days in Denver yet.
It got me wondering how much we think we HAVE to be constantly busy. We rush around as if everything in the world depends on us “accomplishing” our made-up list of to-do’s. What if we pretended like it was a snow day more often? What if we spent more days spending time with our friends, resting our heads, and watching Bottle Rocket? I think we would be better served to realize how unimportant our to-do list is. All of the things I was “supposed” to do today will be there for me to do them tomorrow.
We weren’t created to rush through life. Walking outside in the snow makes you realize how much of life you don’t notice. When everything is quiet and still, you really notice how big the world is, and how beautiful is our existence. God makes each day new and there is no excuse for not leaving the house for at least a moment, just to breath the fresh air. Snow days are the best, because they make everyone take a step back and realize they were operating at a suicidal pace. We need to make more snow-angels and less to-do-lists. We need to have more snowball fights and less boardmeetings. We need to get more time with sun on our faces than in our cars. We need to rest.
Posted 1 week ago on October 27 2009
Musings on a Tuesday Night
I messed up my rhythm with this blog this past week. There is no excuse for me not posting at least some musings on Friday. Anyway, here’s some things that came to my head.
• there’s nothing quite like sitting in the middle seat on a plane when you are 6 feet tall. I’m all for equality, but I think I have an idea. What if they asked for your height and weight when you bought a ticket? Then they would assign you seats accordingly. That way I don’t end up in the middle seat ever again. Plus, fat people would always be against the window. Don’t like it? Lose weight.
• People from other countries are the best thing about flying. When I landed in Denver, the Japanese man sitting next to me began using his noise-cancelling headphones to listen to his phone. That’s fine, except it made him scream into the mouthpiece of his phone. The whole plane was listening to him scream in Japanese to whoever the unlucky soul was on the other end of his call. I almost cried from keeping from laughing, then I realized he couldn’t hear me anyway, so I laughed at him from 6 inches away.
• I realized this weekend how obsessed I actually am with sports when I referred to my girlfriend as a “true sophomore” to one of my friends. Ridiculous. Maybe I should just keep this going, though. For example, only a true sophomore, my girlfriend has already moved her way into the starting lineup, and is a solid contributor. Drew Crowson (ankle) claims his weekend went well and he feels “fine.”
Posted 2 weeks ago on October 21 2009
Olive Trees and You
I was reading an article on one of my favorite websites, the economist, when something really slapped me in the face. You see, for thousands of years these two people groups, the Israelis and Palestinians, have been fighting over the same tract of land. While I don’t claim to have an understanding of the deeply rooted conflict that is going on over there, I do know this: God is being misrepresented.
Both sides claim God gave them this land, so it is rightfully theirs. Someone has to be wrong. Either way, this article did not paint the Israelis in a favorable light. These Palestinian farmers have been harvesting the same olive trees for their entire lives. They planted these trees themselves and have groomed them into fruitful plants which feed their families. The Israelis don’t like the fact that these Palestinians, who are merely farmers and not terrorists, have the audacity to plant and farm on land that “doesn’t belong to them.”
Naturally, the most mature way to solve this problem is to cut those trees down, right? When YHWH made the covenant with Abraham, He promised him that Abraham’s offspring will be a blessing to all nations. Wow. Not to point fingers at the whole of Judaism, but killing innocent Palestinians is not the way to be a blessing. As a Christian, I have seen my fair share of fellow Christians acting like idiots and not blessing anyone either.
I think the way you respond to someone you think is wrong says a lot about your character. If you think you have the right to make life miserable for them simply because you disagree with them, I hope you don’t call yourself a Christian. Loving your neighbor, blessing those who curse you, and praying for those who persecute you are only a handful of actions Christ requires for His followers. Maybe it’s because I am a pacifist, or maybe it’s because I don’t see the glory in killing, but I really have a hard time with violence or hatred being characteristics of Christians.
Next time you disagree with someone, remember what you do to them next shows who you really are. Cutting down their crops before harvest time really doesn’t make you look mature, rational, or loving.
Posted 3 weeks ago on October 16 2009
Musings from the road
Another weekend, another flight to Atlanta. My travels give me ample time to think about life, plus the airport is a hotbed of weirdos that inspire the best musings. These are my actual thoughts from this week.
•I’m looking at a man who is wearing a tshirt with his face on it. Is anything weirder than this? Any interaction with this person must begin with, “Buddy, why are you wearing a shirt with you on it?” Nothing is more awkward than this.
•Oops, figured out something that is more awkward. A man just got on the same step as me on an escalator. Excuse me? I’m not sure what the airport protocol is in Turkmenistan, but here in America, we each get our own step. That’s called Liberty.
•I would never go out to eat by myself in normal life, however, I have no problem sitting down for dinner alone in an airport restaraunt. Why is this ok for me? I mean I guess I never drink Ginger-ale anywhere but on planes, so it makes sense I would have other airport quirks. Ginger-ale makes sense on a plane, but nowhere else.
•You ever been mistaken for a homeless person, I have. It happened to my buddy Nate the other day, too. Maybe I need a lifestyle change.
Posted: 3 weeks ago on October 16 2009
Turnin' Have-tos into Get-tos
I think life is pretty simple. As a matter of fact, I think life boils down to a fairly simple choice: is what you are about to do a have-to or a get-to? As silly as that sounds, I think life seems to be an easy game. If you constantly are talking about all you “have” to do, you will be miserable.
Thinking of everything as an obligation and not as a privilege is a terrible way to go through life. Even when it comes to things that are obligations, it is better to think of them as privileges. Complaining is not a great way to spend the day. Even the most beautiful day can be ruined by a bad outlook. The next time the sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and the peach you are holding in your right hand is just perfect, you need to remember how you “get-to” live, breath, and exist on this beautiful earth.
No one HAS to go to work. You GET to go to work, because you have a job—something that a lot of people can’t say these days. When your perspective shifts and the have-tos become get-tos, you will see what I mean.
Will you walk around will a smile on your face all the time? Not really. But you will have a heck of a time most of the time, which might be all you need to change your life for the better. Once you start living life looking at everything as a privilege you will gain a new enthusiasm for life that you never had before. The man behind Chikfila, S. Truett Cathy, once said, “Food is essential to life, therefore make it good.”
What a lifestyle! If you have to do something, you might as well do it well. You might as well change you have-tos into get-tos. The Bible talks about working as if for the Lord and not for men, and giving everything the effort He deserves. I think when you look at all He has given you to do as privileges, you will find it easier to put forth His style of effort.
Posted 3 weeks ago on October 13 2009
David Beats Goliath Every Time
I was reading an article in the New Yorker today by Malcolm Gladwell. In it, Gladwell shows the strategy used by underdogs to defeat opponents. He makes a very convincing argument that to beat Goliath, David must change his strategy.
If you read the story of David and Goliath in 1 Samuel 17, you will see that Gladwell is extremely accurate in his assessment. Before David can defeat Goliath, he has to first accept his weaknesses and then adjust his strategy accordingly. David cannot defeat Goliath if he plays by Goliath’s rules. If he stands toe-to-toe with the giant and plays Goliath’s game, David head is fed to the ravens.
Another thing David had to do, which Gladwell doesn’t mention, is realize that he worships a God who doesn’t play by the rules all the time. God has a way of helping his servants defeat odds they have no business defeating. When Moses left Egypt with the unarmed, untrained children of Israel, the Pharaoh thought he could just go after them with his army, chariots, and horses and easily “persuade” his slaves to return. Moses doesn’t stand a chance. In fact, Moses leads his people into a trap. They have the Red Sea in front of them and the Egyptian army closing in on their backs. Moses vs. Pharoah is opening in Vegas with Pharaoh a 65 point favorite.
Then Moses realizes what his weakness is (everything) and decides not to play by Pharaoh’s rules. God parts the Red Sea, leads the children of Israel across dry ground, and drowns Pharaoh’s army. God loves an underdog.
David beats Goliath every time when David trusts in the Lord and accepts his weaknesses. How often do we face Goliaths and, instead of putting the effort in trusting God and accepting our weaknesses, we try to defeat our problems on our own terms? We need to trust in a God that doesn’t play by the rules.
Posted: 3 weeks ago on October 13 2009
They don’t make them like this anymore. I cannot believe this was a serious video. I cannot stop watching it.
