Category: hmm… thoughts

  • What does it mean to love someone no matter what?

    between the eyesbetween the eyesbetween the eyesOur adult small groups are wrestling their way through the beatitudes. It’s an interesting study because so much of it hits me between the eyes.

    I’ll tell you one thing I struggle with as a pastor. I fight to not become self-righteous.

    Here’s what I mean. In my area of ministry expectations are a killer. Students and parents expect me to be and do and approve or disapprove of certain things and I in turn have certain expectations for what I expect out of my students and parents.

    And that creates an inborn battle– because both of us are expecting something we are not: Perfect. And expecting perfect responses and actions from imperfect people leads to the ultimate buzz kill in any type of ministry: Disappointment.

    Juno posterToday Kristen and I went to go see the movie Juno. I loved this movie because of its Juno posterJuno posterhonesty, frankness and utter lack of the traditional hollywood glamorization. What Juno does is capture the true heart of what it means to do life with one another. It shows real life comedy, drama, heartache, and redemption all in the search of love while wading through the stupid ideals we all encounter and discover to be false.

    It’s about a girl who messes up and gets pregnant. In her innocense I could squint and see many of the young ladies I’ve worked with over the last decade making the same mistake and getting into the same predicament, wondering where to turn. She wasn’t dating the guy and she couldn’t even admit to herself that she liked him. From a “pastor’s perspective” I could feel myself giving this girl “the judgment look.” You know, the look of disappointment we glare at a person when they don’t live up to our expectations of purity, innocense, and all that other stuff. It’s not limited to pastors but I suppose we are famous for it. (Yes, we did learn how to do that in seminary. With no partying what else was there to do?)

    I was ashamed of myself for thinking I would give this girl “the look.” (Even in my imagination!) Why? Because that’s not an appropriate response. That’s a self-righteous response. It’s me thinking that I am better than a 16 year old who gets pregnant. In actuality I am no better than her. I am just as guilty of 16 year old stupidity as she is. It’s something Jesus would have glared at me about. In fact, it was precicely that type of response that drove me so far from Christ as a high school student myself.

    And now I felt myself wanting to do the same thing. Shame on me.

    I want to be the type of person who is there for students like Juno. I want to be the person Juno calls when she’s done something stupid. (I love how the movie depicts her waiting for people to tell her it was a mistake, as if she didn’t know.) And I want to have the honest response that even though she’s done something really stupid that it’s going to be OK. I want to lead a ministry that lets people know that it doesn’t matter what you’ve done… that God is a God of mercy and grace and forgiveness and… and opportunity.

    There are no mistakes with God. He doesn’t screw up. He doesn’t allow terrible things to happen for no reason. He doesn’t allow our 16 year old mistakes to turn into living breathing babies accidentally. He can turn every “bad thing” we’ve done into something good. He can make all things new. He can allow us to learn to discover love, forgiveness, and grace as we deal with the consequences of our stupid mistakes.

    Jesus said— “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. Revelation 21:5-7

  • Who vs. How Many

    That’s the question Seth Godin wants to know.

    helpAre your efforts at work, school, or church aimed at reaching the most people or at reaching specific individuals, audiences, or people groups?

    Some places require an egalitarian approach. (such as a public school) But in the church world there are two specific and important audiences… the lost need to be reached and the found need to be taught.

    What about in the business world? Are you more interested in keeping customers or reaching new customers?

  • “I won’t have a party”

    This video is both funny and shocking. Maybe I’m getting old, but I think this kid needs some discipline.

    HT to Craig Gross

  • Derek Webb: Is he right about Chrisitan Art?

    Check out this video. In it Derek Webb says that the Christian market talks about 2% of life while ignoring the 98% of “stuff” in the real world.

    What do you think? Should more Christian art reflect the themes Derek mentions?

  • The gospel in Vietnam

    Awesome video here. Sometimes the impossible happens.

  • Right to Work Michigan

    Right to Work StatesI just saw a commercial against legislation called “Right to Work.” (Here’s the “anti-right to work” to be fair.)

    From what I understand, the legislation will allow individual employees to decide if they would like to be in union or not. (If it’s a union shop) So let’s say you are a teacher… this legislation would allow you to opt out of the teacher’s union and remain being a teacher. Or if you work at a plant and would like to leave the union, this would allow you to do that and still keep your job.

    I can’t lie. I think this is a good idea for Michigan. Take a look at the map. Southern states are the ones attracting businesses. Even places like Boise, Idaho have made the list so there is hope for Michigan! Check out Forbes Magazines “Best Places for Business” list and you’ll see that almost all of the top 10 are located in right to work states. (8 out of the 10.)

    I’m not saying “let’s stop the unions” and I’m not a union hater. What I am saying is that there should be legislation that allows employees to chose what is best for them. Employees should have the ability to chose if they’d like to pay into a union, accept union benefits, or otherwise opt in or opt out without threats.

    Would right to work negatively impact unions? Probably. As I talk to people in my life who are in unions most would opt out if they could. The one protection they appreciate most, job security, hasn’t worked in Michigan or protected jobs. Companies simply haven’t been able to afford union workers and remain profitable in this new economy. There is a general assumption among pro-union people that the buying public is willing to pay more for products produced in union shops. Wal*Mart, Toyota, and Honda have blown that theory out of the water. The American people may say that they will buy “American made” or “union pride” products… but they don’t care. Consumers are driven by value, price, and how a product makes them feel.

    Why am I so suspicious of the “anti-right to work” ad campaign? Um, follow the money trail.

  • Back to work

    Today was our first real day in the office since Christmas Eve. It felt good. It’s nice to have vacation time, but man… I was a bum.

  • Just Another Rotation?

    planet earthThis morning I was talking to the kids about today’s date. Megan knew that we started 2008, and she knew that it was now January. But she didn’t know what made a day. She knew who made today, but not what a day was.

    A rotation. It happens so many times in our lifetime that we miss the wonder of billions of pounds of matter spinning. Like a child spins in my living room, the earth spins. And each time there is one rotation we mark its passing with the simple term: A day.

    A year is one rotation of that spinning billions of pounds of matter around the sun. This takes 365.25 days and is equally amazing.

    Today there is a lot of talk about 2007 and 2008. A lot of lists and a lot of dreams. I wonder if those same people will take a good, honest look at the last 365 rotations of the earth, the last rotation around the sun, and ask themselves, “What could I have done better? What can I learn from? How can I start doing better today? What will God have me do today, on this rotation of the earth?”

    There are no guarantees in life. I’m trying hard not to take this rotation for granted.

  • USB Gloves: A gift for Kristen

    USB GlovesKristen suffers from cold hand disease. While not a real disease, it is annoying because Kristen likes to take her frigid fingers and try to touch me. (I am built like a human furnace and rarely get cold.)

    So when Kristen is typing on her computer, the aluminum keyboard gets her fingers extra cold.

    So here is the solution. For $22 she can get a pair of gloves that plugs into the USB of her iMac and warms her hands up! Though 125 degrees F may be a little too toasty.

    HT to Make Magazine

  • First Things First, How Most Mornings Start

    dawnI start each day pretty much the same way. Here’s a list of things I try to do in the morning. The days of grabbing a cup of coffee and reading the morning paper are long, long gone.

    1.  Download e-mail. This usually takes just a couple of seconds as almost everything I get is spam. Even if I get something compelling enough for a response I typically will wait until I am more awake. The only thing I’ll do right away (typically) is send out a prayer request if one was sent to me.
    2. Login to feedburner. Actually I login at least twice so I can check out the subscriber levels of YMX and my personal account. (With blog accounts for Kristen and I.) Here I’m looking for a spike in additions or subtractions. If it has spiked, I’ll update the YMX team.
    3. Login to Google Analytics. Since I’m managing about 20 websites now, this is my one-stop shop to see how everything is doing. (It doesn’t update live, so the morning is my first look at what happened yesterday.) Again, I’m looking for spikes and dips. For YMX, my blog, the church site, and any other site I’m paying special attention to I’ll look at the referral tab. I alway like to see how people are making it to my sites. The vanity search thing is sending us bucket loads of referrals lately. (People googling their name.)
    4. Check site rankings for my favorite search terms on Google. (No, I’m not checking out my name… I get emailed when that pops up anywhere on the internet!) But I like to know if there has been any shift in organic search terms I care about. In just the last 30 days Google has sent 4100 visitors to YMX… our number one referral. (Gospel.com is moving up quickly, love that site!)
    5. Google Reader time. I subscribe to about 100 blogs. My goal in the morning is to clear out the blogs… meaning I want to drop the number of unread things to 0. If it’s good I share it (appears on the left side of my blog), if it isn’t I don’t finish reading it. This is also my primary news source. So if there is something going on in the news I am depending on bloggers to cover it. This is also the source of my morning Bible reading, devos. (Check out RBC’s RSS page)
    6. Pop into YMX. That may surprise people but I only pop into the YMX forums a couple of times per day. I love having a great team of folks that keep the forums going! Patti is the forum-meister and the more I trust her, the better.
    7. Post on my blog. If there has been something on my mind or if one of these other steps brought something to mind that was compelling. I’m also becoming a bigger user of the draft feature, so sometimes I’ve got 8-10 posts that I want to work on when I get a chance. I also go through big “writing feasts” where I may write more posts in a day than I should publish… so I time them to release later.
    8. Publish stuff for YMX. I login to Google docs and see if there is something Amy wants me to publish. It takes me at least 20 minutes to publish an article, do the graphics, and pimp it out. If I’ve got time and it needs to get done, I’ll do it then. If I can’t swing it, it’ll wait until after work.

    How long does all this take? It depends on what I’m doing, how much time I have, and a lot of other factors. (Like getting picked by Megan to take her to school.) I can do all of this in as little as 5 minutes… or if I’ve got a lot of time, it can last all morning.

    What about your morning routine? What do you do?