Turkey Day

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, which is really a great day. To be honest, I mostly look forward to Thanksgiving because of the food. I'm sure that's true for lots of people. This week I've been thinking though about gratitude. Tonight we will be having church with our high school students and I plan on simply having a time of thankfulness. Before I do that, I thought I better write about some of my own thoughts. It's quite interesting to me that Thanksgiving day has become less and less significant in American culture. Most of the stores simply go from candy everywhere and Halloween costumes and decorations, to Christmas. Many stores have both of those going at the same time. Thanksgiving is less marketable I guess. It's about being thankful for what we have, for family, for freedoms, etc. There's no exchange of gifts, no dressing up or parties - mostly just family gatherings centered around a meal and that's about it. And yet, I still hear the word Thanksgiving a lot on TV this week, but it's mostly preceded by the words "Day After" and followed up by the word "Sale." It's kind of ironic I suppose, that Thanksgiving day is all about being thankful for what is truly important, and for what we already have. And for many, less than twenty four hours later it will be a consumeristic blitz. Thanksgiving day is spent forming plans as to what stores to go to, what ungodly hour they should wake up to be there when it opens, and how much money they will spend. I realize there are deals to be had on what is now known as "Black Friday." I realize that if you are going to buy certain things, that this is a great day to do that. But isn't it kind of hypocritical of us as a society? Aren't we saying in one breath how thankful we are for what he have and what is truly important, and in the very next breath consuming more and more in order to be more happy?

Now, it's pretty easy for me to stand here and point fingers at people who love to shop. I can't think of anything more torturous than being in stores on Black Friday. Seriously, you couldn't pay me enough money to go to someplace like Walmart, or Best Buy on Friday. No freaking way. But, I still struggle with the same thing. I like stuff. I like to buy stuff. I like to have the newest, the biggest, the best - and I find myself every so often feeling the need to just spend money. Where does that come from? This year I've been in the dump in Mexico building a family a house there. I've been in Bohlokong, South Africa and gone inside homes where people were dying of AIDS. And yet, I want a new ipod. I want tools. I want music, movies, and more. Is it wrong to want things? Is it wrong to buy things like this? How do I reconcile living in an affluent culture with what I know and have seen in the world? Should I sell everything and live on the streets? Should I give all my possessions away? To be honest, it's a question I am wrestling with, and will continue to wrestle with.

I do know this - something has changed. I no longer mindlessly consume. I am aware of how rich I am compared to the world. There's a great website called globalrichlist.com. On this site, you can put in how much money you make in a year and it will tell you where you rate in the world's wealth. I make a modest income compared to many in the U.S. In fact, I think I'm below average. And yet, I am in the top 3% of the world in terms of my wealth. Are you kidding me? I am richer than 97% of the world. That's crazy. When Jesus said it is difficult for the rich to inherit the kingdom, I've always thought about "rich" people I know. And yet, Jesus is talking about me! 97% of the world would look at me and say I am rich. Wow. That sure changes the way I think about how I spend my money. Do I still go to Starbucks? Yeah. Do I still buy things? Yeah. But I've began to change other habits. I got a DVR the other day with DirecTV. I don't watch commercials any more - which is awesome! All of those ads telling me what I need to buy are now gone. We also give more. We talk about greed and charity and gratitude a lot with our students. We try and model giving to our daughter. She got a bunch of money (I say a bunch, because for a 4 year old $30 is a ton of money!) for her birthday last month. The first thing out of her mouth was "How am I going to send all of this to Africa?" Wow. She understands money buys things. She gets the fact that money has value. Sure, she doesn't understand everything about money, but one thing is for sure - money doesn't own her. She knows that when she has much, there are some that have none, and she can't comprehend a world where she would keep all of that to herself. I love that. I want to be free from money like she is.

OK, so back to gratitude and Thanksgiving. I am thankful for many things. I have an amazing wife. She is simply amazing. I keep wondering how I ended up with her. I have an unbelievable daughter. She is just awesome. I have another daughter on the way. That is such a blessing for us as we tried for a year and a half to get pregnant again. I have a mom that has been such a godly example to me that I love deeply. I have a dad that I love. The fact that I can say that today is a huge answer to prayer. I have a great church family. I love the staff I get to work with. I love our students. They challenge me and stretch me to new places all the time. I have great friends. I have a dream that God has given me - and for that I am very grateful. What's amazing to me is that as I look back at some of the things I wrote about here - not one of them had a price tag. They were never purchased. They were never on sale. And that's because they are priceless. They can't be marketed, they can't be owned. They are gifts to be sure, but I guarantee you that none of these things will be put on any credit card this Friday.

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The Gods Aren't Angry

I went last night to see Rob Bell at the Wiltern in Los Angeles on his "The gods Aren't Angry" tour. First of all, it was my first time to the Wiltern and it's a pretty amazing venue. I sat in the balcony on a rather uncomfortable seat, but I had a good view of the stage and a Coke in my hands, so it wasn't all bad.

On the stage was a stone structure, which we later learned was an altar. Other than that, nothing on the stage at all. The lights dimmed and an opera starting playing rather loudly until finally Rob Bell came out onto the stage. "Sooooo...... there's a cave-woman...." Anyway, he talked about how people early on in the history of man started to notice a correlation between the sun and the moon and food and weather, and everything else. They began to see that all of it was connected. And they attributed good things with gods who were blessing them, and bad things with gods that were angry. And so the altar became central to civilization. If the gods are in a good mood and blessing you, well then you offer them more so that they will continue to be happy and bless you. And if the gods are angry, then you offer them more so that they will become happy and bless you once again. The whole system is burdensome. A person never knows where they stand in relation to the gods - are they happy with me, have I done enough, or are they angry with me? And then the God of the Hebrews comes along to this man named Abraham. He tells him to take his son and sacrifice him on the altar, but before he is able to do so, God tells him to stop and sacrifice a lamb instead. Suddenly this is a God who reaches out to man and provides for man - including the sacrifice. And as the law develops in Leviticus, we see all kinds of rules about sacrifice - including 5 different types of sacrifice. Rob Bell argues that is a revolutionary idea. God is telling people this is exactly what you do, how you do it, etc. For the first time there are no more questions about "Did I do enough? Is God still angry? Is he pleased with me?" When you leave it on the altar it is done and over.

Then, Jesus rolls around and begins saying things like destroy this temple and I will rebuild it in three days. Jesus is once again introducing a completely new concept - that is that the old system is done with. It's no longer necessary. In fact in Hebrews it even says that the blood of animals could never cover sin. It never worked. What the heck then? Why did they do it? It wasn't for God's sake, it was for their sake. It allowed them to function guilt free. And now Jesus has said that all of it is done away with and now all of our sin is gone. So Rob Bell's talk was basically about grace. There were lots of personal stories thrown in, as well as stories from his church. The basic point in the end was that we become instruments for God's grace here when we do good and we free people from the sense that they have to somehow appease God in order to make him happy. He made the statement that any system that weighs down, adds lists to do, etc. is not of God, because our God isn't keeping score. There's no "celestial clipboard in the sky" that God is checking off. Many people live their lives as if God is angry - they do things (church, bible reading, etc.) simply to appease God and keep him off their backs. Other things they don't do (enter any sin here) because they don't want to make him angry. We realize how strange and primitive these things were in the past, and yet our culture continues many of the same practices on today. I love grace. It's amazing. And I'm sure I will never fully comprehend it, but it's an incredible concept and I had a good time hearing Rob Bell speak about it in a fresh way.

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Old

Today is the day. My 30th birthday. Wow. I can no longer be in my twenties. The kids in my youth group have been harassing me for a month now about this day. They have all declared that I am officially old now. I guess someone in their twenties is still just in the age bracket above them, so it isn't so bad. But thirties? Apparently that's ancient.

I went to bed feeling achy, woke up a little sore, went to the gym, and now I feel totally weak. It can't be because I turned 30 can it? At any rate 30 is a good number. It definitely feels a bit different than most birthdays. I've always been a goal-setter. Big achievements, accomplishments, etc. give me cause for reflection. I don't know that you would call turning 30 an accomplishment, but it's definitely a milestone. I am definitely feeling a bit reflective today. I am asking questions like what has shaped me this first 30 years? What did I do for the kingdom? Probably even more pressing a question is what now? I know that despite what teenagers say, 30 isn't old. But it is a pretty decent chunk of a normal life. So what will the next 30 years look like? Where will I be? What will I do for the kingdom? What kind of husband and father will I be? What kinds of joys and heartaches will I experience? How will I push myself to new limits, etc.? You know, Jesus didn't start his ministry until he was 30. So what new things does God have in store for me in ministry? I feel a restlessness stewing inside me. I think God is moving me toward a new stage of my life. Will some things stay the same? I hope so. Will some things change? I hope so.

I know that God's faithfulness to me in my life has been unbelievable. I feel like he has taken me through every stage of my life with a purpose in mind. Nothing has been wasted. Some of the things have been painful, and some of those things still linger. Other things have been incredible sources of blessing, and they continue to bless me every day. But all of it has shaped me. The man I am today is not the same man who turned 20. And I hope it won't be the same man who turns 40. But that is a long way away - and man that is OLD!

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Recovering

So this week has been kind of crazy. Every October 31 is our church's "Harvest Festival". This year's event had more than 3,500 people attend which is I think our biggest attendance ever. Last year we had 2,400 so that's a pretty huge difference. Anyway, the student ministries department is responsible for planning, coordinating, and eventually pulling off everything it takes to make this event happen. It's a long day to say the least. This year was 8am to 11pm non-stop on my feet setting up the event. I'm thankful for all the people that came out to help us this year - we had more help this year than any year I can remember. All of our game booths were set up by lunch time, which allowed me to feel a little less stressed about the rest of the day. Clean up afterwards went just as smoothly with lots of people hanging out to help us out. We had an army of blowers going to clean up the parking lot from all of the trash and hay.

In preparation for this event I designed a new church brochure which would be handed out to everyone who came in the gates. I'm not a designer really, but I enjoy doing that kind of thing. We made it look like a CD booklet. It's fairly simple, with lots of pictures. I like the final product.

This Sunday starts a new service alternative that is happening on Sunday nights in our building. It's just for the month of November, but that means that our sometimes chaotic youth building has to be in better shape than normal because of the service. I'm playing a role in that, mostly because I know the room, the lighting, the sound system, the media, etc. But it also gives us a chance to try out some different things. Our new pastor is eager to start a different kind of service, as right now we are running just one service - and it's pretty tame. He wants to see us do something with a little more life and a different feel. So this month we are trying it. I hope it goes well. I think it's the kind of thing that could be really good for us as a church.

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